Fertility costs of covert viral infections in honey bee queens
department or school: Medicine, Faculty of
department or school: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Chapman, Abigail
issued: 2024-12-12T19:16:41Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: As the sole female capable of laying fertilized eggs within a colony of thousands, honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens are vital to their colonies. However, the factors contributing to “poor quality queens,” a primary cause of colony loss, remain unclear. Although agrichemical exposure and temperature stress are recognized as detrimental, the impact of viral infections on queen health is just beginning to be investigated. In this work, we initially conducted surveys of honey bee queens from beekeeping operations throughout British Columbia, finding that higher levels of viral infection correlate with decreased ovary mass and beekeeper-identified poor quality queens. We then showed that queens experimentally infected with Israeli acute paralysis virus had significantly smaller ovary masses compared to controls, establishing a causal link between viral infection and ovary size. Next, we performed experiments utilizing a combination of deformed wing virus and black queen cell virus, and an inactivated version of the inoculum to explore a potential trade-off between reproduction and immunity, a concept prevalent in many organisms but not yet fully investigated in honey bees. Infected queens displayed smaller ovaries and a reduced likelihood of egg-laying post-injection relative to controls. In the field, heavily infected queens had smaller ovaries, and infection was a predictor for the presence of supersedure cells in the colony. Immune responses in queens receiving infectious virus were comparable to those receiving inactivated virus, and several of the same immune proteins were negatively associated with ovary mass in the field. Lastly, we examined how maternal viral infections affected the proteomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic composition of eggs laid in controlled experiments and collected from beekeeping operations. Experimentally immune-challenged queens upregulated immune effectors in their eggs and ovaries. However, naturally infected queens showed no significant …
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/89858
note: FERTILITY COSTS OF COVERT VIRAL INFECTIONS IN HONEY BEE QUEENS by Abigail Chapman B.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2024 © Abigail Chapman, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Fertility costs of covert viral infections in honey bee queens submitted by Abigail Chapman in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Examining Committee: Leonard Foster, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UBC Supervisor Thibault Mayor, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Katie Marshall, Assistant Professor, Zoology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Risa Sargent, Associate Professor, Land and Food Systems, UBC University Examiner Kayla King, Professor, Zoology, UBC University Examiner iii Abstract As the sole female capable of laying fertilized eggs within a colony of thousands, honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens are vital to their colonies. However, the factors contributing to “poor quality queens,” a primary cause of colony loss, remain unclear. Although agrichemical exposure and temperature stress are recognized as detrimental, the impact of viral infections on queen health is just beginning to be investigated. In this work, we initially conducted surveys of honey bee queens from beekeeping operations throughout British Columbia, finding that higher levels of viral infection correlate with decreased ovary mass and beekeeper-identified poor quality queens. We then showed that queens experimentally infected with Israeli acute paralysis virus had significantly smaller ovary m…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0447492
language: eng
degree discipline: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Foster, Leonard J.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89858