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Host range expansion of honey bee Black Queen Cell Virus in the bumble bee, Bombus huntii

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Abstract

Here we provide the first evidence that Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV), one of the most prevalent honey bee viruses, can cause an infection in bumble bees, Bombus huntii, and that the BQCV infection could spread to different tissues of bumble bees. The detection of negative strand RNA of BQCV, an indicator of active virus replication, in the gut of B. huntii suggests that virus particles replicate within the gut and then cross the gut lining to other tissues through hemolymph circulation. The observation of active replication of the BQCV in the gut, together with the fact that BQCV was more widespread in the body of field-collected bees than that of lab-reared bees, implies a possible association between the foraging activities of bumble bees and virus transmission. The fact that bumble bees and honey bees are able to share nectar and pollen resources in the same field suggests that geographical proximity of two host species could play a role in host range breadth of BQCV.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Chinese “948” Ministry of Agriculture Project (no. 2006-G19(4), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars (no. 30700606, no. 30972149), International joint research project (no. 2009DFA32600) and an USDA-CAP grant (2009-85118-05718).

Virus de la cellule noire de reine: extension de son spectre d’hôtes de l’abeille vers le bourdon Bombus huntii

spectre d’hôtes / bourdon / abeille / BQCV / transmission virale

Erweiterung des Wirtsspektrums des Black Queen Cell Virus auf die Hummel Bombus huntii

Wirtsspektrum / Hummel / Bombus huntii / Black queen cell virus

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Pollinating Insect Biology of the Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Xiangshan, Beijing, China

    Wenjun Peng & Jilian Li

  2. USDA-ARS Bee Research Lab, BARC-East Bldg, 476,, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Humberto Boncristiani, Michele Hamilton & Yanping Chen

  3. USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects, Biology, Management and Systematics Laboratory, Utah State University, BNR 255, Logan, UT, 84322-5310, USA

    James P. Strange

Authors
  1. Wenjun Peng
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  2. Jilian Li
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  3. Humberto Boncristiani
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  4. James P. Strange
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  5. Michele Hamilton
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  6. Yanping Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yanping Chen.

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Manuscript editor: Peter Rosenkranz

Wenjun Peng and Jilian Li contributed equally in this work.

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Peng, W., Li, J., Boncristiani, H. et al. Host range expansion of honey bee Black Queen Cell Virus in the bumble bee, Bombus huntii . Apidologie 42, 650–658 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-011-0061-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-011-0061-5

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