Chronic parasitization by Nosema microsporidia causes global expression changes in core nutritional, metabolic and behavioral pathways in honey bee workers (Apis mellifera)

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Christina M Grozinger¹  Holly L Holt²  Katherine A Aronstein³ 

[1] Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA;Department of Entomology, Center for Pollinator Research, Center for Chemical Ecology, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA;3A Chemical Ecology Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, Orchard Road, 16802, University Park, PA, USA;Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics & Physiology Lab, USDA, Baton Rouge, USA;

关键词: Nosema;    Honey bee;    Behavioral maturation;    Insulin signaling pathway;    Innate immunity;    Chronic parasite;    Nutrition;    Genomics;    Stress;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-14-799

 received in 2013-04-11, accepted in 2013-11-07,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundChronic infections can profoundly affect the physiology, behavior, fitness and longevity of individuals, and may alter the organization and demography of social groups. Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are two microsporidian parasites which chronically infect the digestive tract of honey bees (Apis mellifera). These parasites, in addition to other stressors, have been linked to increased mortality of individual workers and colony losses in this key pollinator species. Physiologically, Nosema infection damages midgut tissue, is energetically expensive and alters expression of immune genes in worker honey bees. Infection also accelerates worker transition from nursing to foraging behavior (termed behavioral maturation). Here, using microarrays, we characterized global gene expression patterns in adult worker honey bee midgut and fat body tissue in response to Nosema infection.ResultsOur results indicate that N. apis infection in young workers (1 and 2 days old) disrupts midgut development. At 2 and 7 days post-infection in the fat body tissue, N. apis drives metabolic changes consistent with energetic costs of infection. A final experiment characterizing gene expression in the fat bodies of 14 day old workers parasitized with N. apis and N. ceranae demonstrated that Nosema co-infection specifically alters conserved nutritional, metabolic and hormonal pathways, including the insulin signaling pathway, which is also linked to behavioral maturation in workers. Interestingly, in all experiments, Nosema infection did not appear to significantly regulate overall expression of canonical immune response genes, but infection did alter expression of acute immune response genes identified in a previous study. Comparative analyses suggest that changes in nutritional/metabolic processes precede changes in behavioral maturation and immune processes.ConclusionsThese genome-wide studies of expression patterns can help us disentangle the direct and indirect effects of chronic infection, and understand the molecular pathways that regulate disease symptoms.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Holt et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013