Rodrigues de Miranda, Joachim
- Institutionen för ekologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Sammanfattning
Social immunity forms an essential part of the defence repertoire of social insects. In response to infestation by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and its associated viruses, honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) have developed a specific behaviour (varroa-sensitive hygiene, or VSH) that helps protect the colony from this parasite. Brood cells heavily infested with mites are uncapped, the brood killed, and the cell contents removed. For this extreme sacrifice to be beneficial to the colony, the targeting of parasitized brood for removal must be accurate and selective. Here we show that varroa-infested brood produce uniquely identifiable cues that could be used by VSH-performing bees to identify with high specificity which brood cells to sacrifice. This selective elimination of mite-infested brood is a disease resistance strategy analogous to programmed cell death, where young bees likely to be highly dysfunctional as adults are sacrificed for the greater good of the colony.
Publicerad i
Scientific Reports
2016, volym: 6, artikelnummer: 25444
SLU författare
Associerade SLU-program
Framtidens djurhälsa och djurvälfärd (tom Jan 2017)
UKÄ forskningsämne
Patobiologi
Jordbruksvetenskap
Evolutionsbiologi
Publikationens identifierare
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25444
Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/77578