The honeybee immune system as the key to overcome CCD.

Honeybees are of great economic importance due to their role in the pollination of many agricultural crops. Since 2006, however, honeybee populations are undergoing a great worldwide decline as a result of a disease dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD). Various contributory factors have been identified, including parasitic Varroa mites, Israeli acute paralysis virus and Deformed wing virus (DWV). Possible treatment strategies are still limited, and have so far focused on, among others, selecting for increased colony hygiene or RNA interference-based knock-down of specific viruses. The current project will take a different approach and instead aims to study the anti-viral immune system of honeybees in more detail as a basis for later treatment strategies. The honeybees' innate anti-viral immune system will be studied by comparing several tissues of bees, which have or have not been infected with DWV. Subsequently, differential proteomics and peptidomics and RNA sequencing will allow us to identify antimicrobial peptides and components of the immune system.

Keywords:Honeybee, Immunology, Sociobiology, Deformed wing virus

Disciplines:Microbiology