Abstract
Host–parasite interactions do not occur in a vacuum, but in connected multi-parasite networks that can result in co-exposures and coinfections of individual hosts. These can affect host health and disease ecology, including disease outbreaks. However, many host–parasite studies examine pairwise interactions, meaning we still lack a general understanding of the influence of co-exposures and coinfections. Using the bumble bee Bombus impatiens, we study the effects of larval exposure to a microsporidian Nosema bombi, implicated in bumble bee declines, and adult exposure to Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), an emerging infectious disease from honey bee parasite spillover. We hypothesize that infection outcomes will be modified by co-exposure or coinfection. Nosema bombi is a potentially severe, larval-infecting parasite, and we predict that prior exposure will result in decreased host resistance to adult IAPV infection. We predict double parasite exposure will also reduce host tolerance of infection, as measured by host survival. Although our larval Nosema exposure mostly did not result in viable infections, it partially reduced resistance to adult IAPV infection. Nosema exposure also negatively affected survival, potentially due to a cost of immunity in resisting the exposure. There was a significant negative effect of IAPV exposure on survivorship, but prior Nosema exposure did not alter this survival outcome, suggesting increased tolerance given the higher IAPV infections in the bees previously exposed to Nosema. These results again demonstrate that infection outcomes can be non-independent when multiple parasites are present, even when exposure to one parasite does not result in a substantial infection.
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Data and analysis scripts are available at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txk1.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Sadd lab members for colony maintenance, especially Toby Bassingthwaite for additional preparation of materials during the coexposure experiment. The authors also thank Dolezal lab members for IAPV inoculum preparation.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant R15 GM129681-01 to B.M.S.], the United States Department of Agriculture [grant 2017-67013-26536 to B.M.S.], two Phi Sigma Biological Society Weigel Grants, one Phi Sigma Mockford-Thompson Fellowship, and one Sigma Xi Grant-in-aid of research to E.C.M. Instrumentation used in this project was funded by a National Science Foundation MRI grant [1725199] with B.M.S. as a co-PI.
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ECM, AGD, and BMS conceived and designed the experiments. ECM performed the experiments. ORC performed microscopy and assisted with data collection. ECM and BMS analyzed the data. ECM and BMS wrote the manuscript; AGD provided editorial advice.
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McCormick, E.C., Cohen, O.R., Dolezal, A.G. et al. Consequences of microsporidian prior exposure for virus infection outcomes and bumble bee host health. Oecologia 202, 325–335 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05394-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05394-x