Abstract
Nosema ceranae is a microsporidium parasite infecting honey bees worldwide. All colony members including workers, drones, and queens can become infected. In this study, we inoculated queens of age 1, 6, and 12 days post-adult emergence, with N. ceranae spores of different doses and allowed them to age an additional 12 days. The results indicated that younger queens were indeed more susceptible to N. ceranae inoculation than older queens. Moreover, this is the first report of the effects of N. ceranae inoculation on immune gene expression in queens of different ages. Our results demonstrated that the expression of genes related to the bee immunity apidaecin, eater, and vitellogenin in the gut and the remaining abdomen was different among queens of different ages when inoculated with N. ceranae. All three ages of queens inoculated by N. ceranae showed upregulation of apidaecin in gut tissue 6 days after inoculation, but only in queens aged 1 day post-emergence were the differences significant. However, transcript levels of eater were increased in all three ages of queens when sampled on day 12, and significant differences were obtained in queens inoculated at 6 and 12 days post-emergence. We clearly show that immune responses to N. ceranae changes as queen age and this knowledge may provide clues for understanding the ability of queens to resist infection by this gut parasite.
Highlights
Two microsporidian parasites, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, have been reported to cause Nosema disease of honey bees
The numbers of N. ceranae spores present in queens experimentally inoculated immediately after emergence were about 6 and 73 times higher than that in queens experimentally inoculated at ages and 12 days after emergence, respectively
We examined the effect of both queen age and spore dose on the susceptibility of queen honey bees to N. ceranae infection
Summary
Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, have been reported to cause Nosema disease of honey bees. N. ceranae can change the physiology and behavior of honey bees (Dussaubat et al 2013; Goblirsch et al 2013). N. ceranae induces an energetic stress (Mayack and Naug 2009; Alaux et al 2010; Martín-Hernández et al 2011) and oxidative stress in honey bees (Dussaubat et al 2012) and decreases the carbohydrate level in honeybee forager hemolymph (Mayack and Naug 2010). Similar to N. apis infection, honey bees, when infected with N. ceranae, have a shorter life span (Malone et al 1995; Goblirsch et al 2013)
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