Diversity in a honey bee pathogen: first report of a third master variant of the Deformed Wing Virus quasispecies

Mordecai, Gideon J; Wilfert, Lena; Martin, Stephen J; Jones, Ian M; Schroeder, Declan C

The phylogenetic analysis concludes that the DWV quasispecies is made up of three distinct master variants. However, the number of variants is not exhaustive and it is conceivable that more variants will be added in the future as the use of NGS becomes increasingly prolific. The result further suggests that Type C has not recently emerged, but rather is an established DWV variant. Moreover, using reverse transcriptase-PCR to amplify a region of the DWV RdRp gene, Martin et al. (2012) attributed a novel variant to the type B swarm of variants, although it is now clear that this novel variant was in fact Type C. The presence of Type C in Hawaii implies that this variant is widespread and not specific to the United Kingdom. It also confirms that it has not emerged recently as the Hawaiian sample originates from Kauai that has yet to be colonised by Varroa , suggesting Type C is part of the wild-type DWV quasispecies.