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Towards disrupting Varroa –honey bee chemosensing: A focus on a Niemann‐Pick type C2 transcript
Author(s) -
Nganso B. T.,
Mani K.,
Eliash N.,
Rafaeli A.,
Soroker V.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1111/imb.12722
Subject(s) - biology , varroa destructor , gene silencing , varroa , gene , honey bee , genetics , brood , host (biology) , mite , zoology , botany
We focused our study on the 12 recently identified putative odorant carrier proteins in the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor . Here we show, via an exclusion of the chemosensory appendages (forelegs and gnathosoma) that transcripts of five of the 12 genes were significantly lower, suggesting that they are likely involved in carrying host volatiles. Specifically, three transcripts were found to be foreleg‐specific while the other two transcripts were expressed in both the forelegs and gnathosoma. We focused on one of the highly expressed and foreleg‐specific transcript Vd40090, which encodes a Niemann‐Pick disease protein type C2 (NPC2) protein. Effects of dsRNA‐mediated silencing of Vd40090 were first measured by quantifying the transcript levels of genes that encode other putative odorant carrier proteins as well as reproduction related proteins. In addition, the impact of silencing on mites behaviour and survival was tested. Silencing of Vd40090 effectively disrupted Varroa host selection, acceptance and feeding and significantly impaired the expression of genes that regulate its reproduction in brood cells, resulting in reduced reproduction and survival.