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| Varroa mite ( brown oval on thorax) on honey bee |
As it is understood around the world, the Varroa mite, this "blood sucker vampire" is the honey bee parasite that cause the most economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It can cripple and ruin an operation in few seasons. This mite can only reproduce in a honeybee colony, attaching itself to a honey bee, weakening her and at the same time transmitting many viruses, thus making it impossible for the bee to recover such a devastating plague.
In 2010, researchers at Aberdeen University have been able to "silence" natural functions in the mites' gene. Dr. Alan Bowman explains that "introducing harmless genetic material encourages the mites' own immune response to prevent their genes from expressing natural functions. This could make them self destruct."
This approach is very specific and targets the mites only without harming the bees. This development comes from the Nobel-Prize Winning theory 'RNA interference', which controls the flow of genetic information.
Gene silencing is the ability of a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. This method is now used to combat cancers and infectious diseases. It also means that the genes are decreased not eliminated, not completely erased.
In that optic, a team composed of Garbian Y, Maori E, Kalev H, Shafir S, Sela I. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Rehovot, Israel, discovered that when the bees were fed some double stranded RNA (ds Rna) with a sequence of genes similar to the Israeli acute paralysis virus, they were protected against the deadly virus!
In their new study, they show that dsRNA eaten by the honey bees, is transferred to the Varroa mite, and then passed on to an already parasitized bee. This exchange of dsRNA between bee and mite, created a gene silencing in the mite. This resulted in a decreased of 60% in the mite population!
This transfer of gene silencing triggering molecules between the honey bee and this parasite could lead to a brand new approach to Varroa control.
(Bidirectional Transfer of RNAi between Honey Bee and Varroa destructor: Varroa Gene Silencing Reduces Varroa Population.
In 2010, researchers at Aberdeen University have been able to "silence" natural functions in the mites' gene. Dr. Alan Bowman explains that "introducing harmless genetic material encourages the mites' own immune response to prevent their genes from expressing natural functions. This could make them self destruct."
This approach is very specific and targets the mites only without harming the bees. This development comes from the Nobel-Prize Winning theory 'RNA interference', which controls the flow of genetic information.
Gene silencing is the ability of a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. This method is now used to combat cancers and infectious diseases. It also means that the genes are decreased not eliminated, not completely erased.
In that optic, a team composed of Garbian Y, Maori E, Kalev H, Shafir S, Sela I. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Rehovot, Israel, discovered that when the bees were fed some double stranded RNA (ds Rna) with a sequence of genes similar to the Israeli acute paralysis virus, they were protected against the deadly virus!
In their new study, they show that dsRNA eaten by the honey bees, is transferred to the Varroa mite, and then passed on to an already parasitized bee. This exchange of dsRNA between bee and mite, created a gene silencing in the mite. This resulted in a decreased of 60% in the mite population!
This transfer of gene silencing triggering molecules between the honey bee and this parasite could lead to a brand new approach to Varroa control.
(Bidirectional Transfer of RNAi between Honey Bee and Varroa destructor: Varroa Gene Silencing Reduces Varroa Population.
PLoS Pathog. 2012 Dec;8(12):e1003035)
Always something new to learn!
