“Genomic Research Finds Bees Are Affected By 27 More Viruses Than Previously Thought”

Although this Sophomore College is called ‘Viruses in the News’, not ‘An Abbreviated Humans and Viruses’, this past week of class has focused on viruses relevant to humans. However, after reading Spillover by David Quammen, the importance of studying viruses in animals has come to my attention because of the role animals play as hosts and vectors and because of ecosystem imbalance that would occur as a result of particular animal becoming infected to dangerously high numbers. One animal that perfectly exemplifies this latter reasoning is the bee. Globally, bee populations are dropping, causing declines in pollination and therefore declines in plant life. In an anthropocentric view, this poses a severe threat, as society would crumble without successful agriculture.

One of the main reasons behind these diminishing bee populations is viral infection. In a study conducted of wild populations in Kenya, India, Panama, and the US, 11 bee species (both apids i.e. the honeybee and non-apids i.e. the bumblebee) had their genomes assessed. These researchers discovered that 27 more viruses had been inserted into it, or associated with it, than had previously been known. 6 of these viruses fell into families that had not previously been known to infect bees. One of these families was Dicistroviridae, a family that can devastatingly cause black queen cell and acute paralysis. Currently, there is no direct evidence that these viruses pose serious risks to bees, but phylogenetic analysis has at least put them on the radar.

Artificial bee colonies are usually held responsible for this increase, as the majority of these viruses are associated with human curated colonies that have been found to ‘spillover’ into wild populations. Huh, looks like the humans are (indirectly) causing the spillover (again).

See full article here: https://www.evolving-science.com/environment/bees-affected-00766

-Isabella Duan