WIKIMEDIA, JON SULLIVANUS Department of Agriculture researchers identified tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV), a blight-causing pathogen that wreaks havoc on soy crops, in a routine screen of commercial honeybees, according to a study published today (January 21) in mBio. The virus appeared to infect nearly every tissue of its bee hosts, excluding the eyes, and to spread between the insects via mites that feed on bee hemolymph.
Identifying the cause of honeybee population declines has become a top priority, as the insects are critical to the multibillion dollar agricultural industry. RNA viruses like TRSV are particularly concerning because of their high mutation rates and ability to subvert the host’s immune response. “Because of their genetic diversity, we see a lot of host jumping,” lead author Yan Ping Chen, a bee pathologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Maryland, told the Los Angeles Times. How frequently the bees are picking up the virus from plants, as opposed to passing it among themselves, and whether the bees are spreading the virus to otherwise healthy plants, remains to be seen.
The virus’s direct role in bee declines is also unclear at this point, ...
