Area wide monitoring of plant and honey bee (Apis mellifera) viruses in blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) agroecosystems facilitated by honey bee pollination

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/v15051209

Language of the publication
English
Date
2023-05-20
Type
Article
Author(s)
  • Lee, Eunseo
  • Vansia, Raj
  • Phelan, James
  • Lofano, Andrea
  • Smith, Adam
  • Wang, Aiming
  • Bilodeau, Guillaume J.
  • Pernal, Stephen F.
  • Guarna, M. Marta
  • Rott, Michael
  • Griffiths, Jonathan S.
Publisher
MDPI

Abstract

Healthy agroecosystems are dependent on a complex web of factors and inter-species interactions. Flowers are hubs for pathogen transmission, including the horizontal or vertical transmission of plant-viruses and the horizontal transmission of bee-viruses. Pollination by the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is critical for industrial fruit production, but bees can also vector viruses and other pathogens between individuals. Here, we utilized commercial honey bee pollination services in blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) farms for a metagenomics-based bee and plant virus monitoring system. Following RNA sequencing, viruses were identified by mapping reads to a reference sequence database through the bioinformatics portal Virtool. In total, 29 unique plant viral species were found at two blueberry farms in British Columbia (BC). Nine viruses were identified at one site in Ontario (ON), five of which were not identified in BC. Ilarviruses blueberry shock virus (BlShV) and prune dwarf virus (PDV) were the most frequently detected viruses in BC but absent in ON, while nepoviruses tomato ringspot virus and tobacco ringspot virus were common in ON but absent in BC. BlShV coat protein (CP) nucleotide sequences were nearly identical in all samples, while PDV CP sequences were more diverse, suggesting multiple strains of PDV circulating at this site. Ten bee-infecting viruses were identified, with black queen cell virus frequently detected in ON and BC. Area-wide bee-mediated pathogen monitoring can provide new insights into the diversity of viruses present in, and the health of, bee-pollination ecosystems. This approach can be limited by a short sampling season, biased towards pollen-transmitted viruses, and the plant material collected by bees can be very diverse. This can obscure the origin of some viruses, but bee-mediated virus monitoring can be an effective preliminary monitoring approach.

Subject

  • Agriculture

Keywords

  • Viruses,
  • Metagenomics,
  • Métagénomique,
  • Bees,
  • Abeilles

Rights

Peer review

Yes

Open access level

Green

Article

Journal title
Viruses
Journal volume
15
Journal issue
5
Article number
1209
Accepted date
2023-05-17
Submitted date
2023-05-11

Citation(s)

Lee, E., Vansia, R., Phelan, J., Lofano, A., Smith, A., Wang, A., Bilodeau, G. J., Pernal, S. F., Guarna, M. M., Rott, M., & Griffiths, J. S. (2023). Area wide monitoring of plant and honey bee (apis mellifera) viruses in blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) agroecosystems facilitated by honey bee pollination. Viruses, 15(5), 1209. https://doi.org/10.3390/v15051209

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Collection(s)

Crops and horticulture

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