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The ectoparasite  Varroa destructor  causes serious losses of  Apis mellifera  colonies and negatively impacts the beekeeping industry around the world. New control methods have been proposed based on the RNA interference technique. Previous reports showed that parasitized honey bees fed with double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) synthesized  in vitro  reduce the transcription levels of target genes in Varroa mites. An efficient and inexpensive alternative to produce dsRNA is the use of bacteria capable of achieving high levels of  in vivo  synthesis. In the present study, dsRNA synthetized  in vivo  was used to induce gene silencing in  V. destructor  and evaluate their effect on the survival of both honey bees and the parasitic Varroa mites. The results evidenced that dsRNA fed to the bees engendered gene silencing in mites, inhibiting expression levels of target genes by 50%. Indeed, a reduction of 50% in Varroa survival was observed when bacterially expressed dsRNAs were administered to mite-parasitized bees. Worker bees that were fed with Varroa-targeted dsRNA by oral route showed no survival differences compared to control bees, fed with sucrose or dsRNA-GFP solutions. Our results demonstrated that specific dsRNA over-expressed in bacteria is capable of reducing mite survival by bee-mediated oral administration. This study provides an efficient and low-cost method for dsRNA production to control parasites and honey bee diseases.

Bacterially expressed dsRNA induces Varroa destructor gene knockdown by honey bee-mediated oral administration