Presence of Apis Rhabdovirus-1 in Populations of Pollinators and Their Parasites from Two Continents
Abstract
The viral ecology of bee communities is complex, where viruses are readily shared among co-foraging bee species. Additionally, in honey bees (Apis mellifera), many viruses are transmitted - and their impacts exacerbated - by the parasitic Varroa destructor mite. Thus far, the viruses found to be shared across bee species and transmitted by V. destructor mites are positive-sense single stranded RNA viruses. Recently, a negative-sense RNA enveloped virus, Apis rhabdovirus-1 (ARV-1), was found in Apis mellifera honey bees in Africa, Europe and islands in the Pacific. Here, we describe the identification – using a metagenomics approach - of ARV-1 in two bee species (Apis mellifera and Bombus impatiens) and in Varroa destructor mites from populations collected in the United States and Israel. We confirmed the presence of ARV-1 in pools of A. mellifera, B. impatiens and V. destructor from Israeli and US populations by RT-PCR and found that it can reach high titers in individual honey bees and mites (10˄7-10˄8 viral genomic copies per individual). To estimate the prevalence of ARV-1 in honey bee populations, we screened 104 honey bee colonies across Israel, with 21 testing ARV-1-positive. Tagged-primer-mediated RT-PCR analysis detected the presence of the positive-sense ARV-1 RNA in A. mellifera and V. destructor, indicating that ARV-1 replicates in both hosts. This is the first report of the presence of ARV-1 in B. impatiens and of the replication of a rhabdovirus in A. mellifera…
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