Systemic Spread and Propagation of a Plant-Pathogenic Virus in European Honeybees, Apis mellifera

Li, Ji Lian; Cornman, R. Scott; Evans, Jay D.; Pettis, Jeffery S.; Zhao, Yan; Murphy, Charles; Peng, Wen Jun; Wu, Jie; Hamilton, Michele; Boncristiani, Humberto F.; Zhou, Liang; Hammond, John; Chen, Yan Ping

In the present study, we provide evidence that TRSV is present in honeybees and the infection can be widespread through the body of honeybees. TRSV in honeybees does not fit a circulativepropagative model of insect-vectored plant viruses, in which virions are ingested by an insect vector, replicate, and disperse to salivary glands for reinfection of the plant host. Instead, our data indicate that the replication of TRSV occurs widely in the honeybee body but not in the gut or salivary gland and that TRSV in conjunction with other bee viruses is correlated with winter colony level declines. Further, virus was found in a common ectoparasite mite of honeybees, Varroa destructor, but was restricted to the gastric cecum. This study presents a unique example of viruses that cause infection in both plants and animals.