Sisters from another father ? Honey bee patriline diversity and resistance to diseases

BEAUREPAIRE, A.; SANN, C.; ARREDONDO, D.; CASTELLI, L.; GENCHI GARCÍA, M.L.; REYNALDI, F.J.; ANTÚNEZ, K.; INVERNIZZI, C.; MONDET, F.; LE CONTE, Y.; DALMON, A.

Workshop; 16th COLOSS Conference; 2020

Honey bee colonies are composed of many worker subfamilies, resulting in high intra-colonial genotypic diversity that may enhance colony defense against pathogens. Here, the susceptibility of Apis mellifera subfamilies towards ectoparasitic mites Varroa destructor and honey bee viruses was evaluated. First, the links between mite infestation and worker subfamilies were investigated. To do so, DNA of 486 pupae from three colonies was extracted and their patrilines reconstructed using microsatellite markers to test the links between several mite infestation traits and brood genotypes. No significant variation in the mite infestation traits was found between subfamilies. Secondly, we used a subsample of 108 pupae from 3-4 subfamilies per colonies to compare the titers of four honey bee viruses (DWV, BQCV, SBV, CBPV) across patrilines. Only DWV was found in the analyzed samples, and the two major variants of this virus (DWV-A and DWV-B) had significantly different infection levels across the subfamilies analyzed. The data indicate that genotypic worker diversity can play a significant role in colony defense against pathogens and provide evidence of gene-for-gene relationships between honey bees and their viruses.