Diversity in a honey bee pathogen: first report of a
third master variant of the Deformed Wing Virus
quasispecies.
Subtract
Treatment of emerging RNA viruses is hampered by the high mutation and
replication rates that enable
these viruses to operate as a quasispecies. Declining honey bee populations
have been attributed to
the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor and its affiliation with Deformed
Wing Virus (DWV). In the
current study we use next-generation sequencing to investigate the DWV
quasispecies in an apiary
known to suffer from overwintering colony losses. We show that the DWV
species complex is made
up of three master variants. Our results indicate that a new DWV Type C
variant is distinct from the
previously described types A and B, but together they form a distinct clade
compared with other
members of the Iflaviridae. The molecular clock estimation predicts that
Type C diverged from the other
variants бн319 years ago. The discovery of a new master variant of DWV has
important implications for
the positive identification of the true pathogen within global honey bee
populations.
The ISME Journal advance online publication, 17 November 2015;
doi:10.1038/ismej.2015.178
More info here:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Martin/publications
(Free copy - And there is even more to read).
Kind regards,
Ghislain De Roeck,
Belgium.
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