>
> >Unless I misunderstand this publication


I'm kinda sorry that I started this discussion.  My point is that nearly
all studies that claim to have found DWV or DWV replication (due to the
presence of negative-strand virus RNA), were analyzing whole-mite extracts,
which would include the DWV in any honey bee fat body tissue in the mites'
guts.  Bee fat body tissue can be loaded with DWV, which would thus
contaminate the whole-mite homogenate.

You need to read the Materials and Methods of any study.

Those few studies that actually looked to determine exactly where in the
mite that DWV RNA existed, only found it in the mite gastric caecae, other
than the one study by Campbell, who claims to have found it in the mite
"brain" tissue.  I must question this finding, since in insects, DWV is
found in a number of body tissues, rather than solely in the brain.

The reason that I find this detail of interest, is that some researchers
are making the claim that the mites amplify DWV in their bodies, rather
than simply being a mechanical vector.  If this were true, then DWV would
need to evolve to successfully reproduce in two very different hosts (bee
and mite), which might strongly affect  it's evolution.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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