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From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 07:40:03 -0400
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A new paper is out that has the puzzling title: "Hologenome theory and the honey bee pathosphere." My spell checker flags both these new words. Say what??? Hologenome and pathosphere? If it wasn't co-authored by Jay Evans, I would be satirizing it. But wherever Jay goes, I will listen. He writes:

Different combinations of bee/microbiota/pathosphere genome complexes may explain regional variation in apiculture productivity and mortality. To understand this, we must consider management and research approaches in light of a hologenome paradigm: that honey bee fitness is determined by the composite bee and microbiota genomes.  

Honey bee pathosphere  

Protists: Two species of trypanosomatids are now known to infect honey bees 

Fungi: Aspergillus fungi are opportunistic pathogens that release mycotoxins when infecting hosts and can cause recognizable disease in honey bee larvae (stonebrood) 

Bacteria: Two well studied bacteria can cause foulbrood disease in honey bee larvae, but variation in disease severity has only recently been linked to genomic variants of the etiologic agents P. larvae [68] and M. plutonius [

Viruses: At least 5 members of this pathosphere group can contribute significantly to colony collapses. Genome variants of the primary honey bee viruses are regularly reported 

Research applications to bee management 

Probiotics: Pure cultures of individual honey bee microbiota isolates are enabling efficacy trials for probiotic applications. Before probiotics can be recommended for management purposes, careful and comparable assays that test the efficacy of microbial impacts under different host and pathogen genome combinations are required. 

Improved pathosphere diagnostics: Apiculturists often want to screen their colonies for the presence/prevalence of certain pathogens to help management decisions (enact control measures or interpret colony collapses). Molecular methods are required to accurately diagnose some of the more common pathogen species 

Conclusion 

In addition to factors beyond the focus of this review (nutrition, epigenetics, pesticides and other abiotic factors), apiculturists must consider system-wide genome interactions as a framework central to managing bee health. We have highlighted the contextual importance of the hologenome jointly with the pathosphere genomes to better understand and fully contrast healthy, robust colonies with diseased and collapsing ones.

Excerpted for review purposes only from:
Schwarz, R. S., Huang, Q., & Evans, J. D. (2015). Hologenome theory and the honey bee pathosphere. Current Opinion in Insect Science.

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