Published in Apidologie
Grooming behavior confers resistance to honey bees against the mite Varroa destructor and thus is a mechanism of interest for studies of social immunity and breeding purposes. However, mites are not always available to conduct grooming assays and can introduce variability to the evaluations. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate th...
When Varroa destructor invaded France in 1982, feral colonies disappeared destroyed by the mite. In 1994, few feral colonies could be observed back in different places. An experiment was designed to look at natural selection and survival of those colonies. Since they were still alive in 1999, we evaluated the surviving of other varroa untreated hon...
When Varroa destructor invaded France in 1982, feral colonies disappeared destroyed by the mite. In 1994, few feral colonies could be observed back in different places. An experiment was designed to look at natural selection and survival of those colonies. Since they were still alive in 1999, we evaluated the surviving of other varroa untreated hon...
The ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, is the most severe biotic threat to honeybees (Apis mellifera) globally, usually causing colony death within a few years without treatments. While it is known that a few A. mellifera populations survive mite infestations by means of natural selection, the possible role of mite adaptations remains unclear. ...
In insects, δ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, and GABA-gated ion channels are the target of different classes of insecticides, including fipronil. We report here the cloning of six subunits (four RDL, one LCCH3, and one GRD) that constitute the repertoire of the GABA-gated ion channel family of the Varroa mite (Va...
Background: The parasite Varroa destructor represents a significant threat to honeybee colonies. Indeed, development of Varroa infestation within colonies, if left untreated, often leads to the death of the colony. Although its impact on bees has been extensively studied, less is known about its biology and the functional processes governing its ad...
Varroa destructor is the most devastating parasite of the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera. In the light of the arm race opposing the host and its parasite, the population dynamics and genetic diversity of these organisms are key parameters. However, the life cycle of V. destructor is characterized by extreme inbreeding due to full sibling mating i...
Published in BMC Genomics
BackgroundOrganisms typically face infection by diverse pathogens, and hosts are thought to have developed specific responses to each type of pathogen they encounter. The advent of transcriptomics now makes it possible to test this hypothesis and compare host gene expression responses to multiple pathogens at a genome-wide scale. Here, we performed...
Published in Scientific reports
Deformed wing virus (DWV) is considered one of the most damaging pests in honey bees since the spread of its vector, Varroa destructor. In this study, we sequenced the whole genomes of two virus isolates and studied the evolutionary forces that act on DWV genomes. The isolate from a Varroa-tolerant bee colony was characterized by three recombinatio...
Varroa destructor mite fall over 14 counts from honey bee colonies before (7 counts) and after (7 counts) insertion of a test device (The Bee Gym) or control object. The number of damaged mites is included for the 'counts after'. Data were collected between 30 June and 30 July 2014. The time the drop boards were in place for, for each count, and th...
