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Beeporter: tools for high-throughput analyses of pollinator-virus infections
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  • Jay Evans,
  • Olubukola Banmeke,
  • Evan Palmer-Young,
  • Yanping Chen,
  • Eugene Ryabov
Jay Evans
USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory, Building 306,10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, Maryland

Corresponding Author:jay.evans@usda.gov

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Olubukola Banmeke
USDA-ARS Northeast Area
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Evan Palmer-Young
USDA-ARS Northeast Area
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Yanping Chen
USDA-ARS Northeast Area
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Eugene Ryabov
USDA-ARS Northeast Area
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Abstract

Pollinators are in decline thanks to the combined stresses of disease, pesticides, habitat loss, and climate. Honey bees face numerous pests and pathogens but arguably none are as devastating as Deformed wing virus (DWV). Understanding host-pathogen interactions and virulence of DWV in honey bees is slowed by the lack of cost-effective high-throughput screening methods for viral infection. Currently, analysis of virus infection in bees and their colonies is tedious, requiring a well-equipped molecular biology laboratory and the use of hazardous chemicals. Here we describe cDNA clones of DWV tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) or nanoluciferase (nLuc), providing high-throughput detection and quantification of virus infections. GFP fluorescence is recorded non-invasively in living bees via commonly available long-wave UV light sources and a smartphone camera or a standard ultraviolet transilluminator gel imaging system. Nonlethal monitoring with GFP allows high-throughput screening and serves as a direct breeding tool for identifying honey bee parents with increased antivirus resistance. Expression using the nLuc reporter strongly correlates with virus infection levels and is especially sensitive. Using multiple reporters, it is also possible to visualize competition, differential virulence, and host tissue targeting by co-occuring pathogens. Finally, it is possible to directly assess the risk of cross-species ‘spillover’ from honey bees to other pollinators and vice versa.
23 Mar 2021Submitted to Molecular Ecology Resources
31 Mar 2021Submission Checks Completed
31 Mar 2021Assigned to Editor
19 Apr 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
10 Jun 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
02 Jul 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
09 Aug 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
09 Aug 20211st Revision Received
10 Sep 2021Editorial Decision: Accept
20 Oct 2021Published in Molecular Ecology Resources. 10.1111/1755-0998.13526