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- Title
The innate immune and systemic response in honey bees to a bacterial pathogen, Paenibacillus larvae.
- Authors
Chan, Queenie W T; Melathopoulos, Andony P; Pernal, Stephen F; Foster, Leonard J
- Abstract
There is a major paradox in our understanding of honey bee immunity: the high population density in a bee colony implies a high rate of disease transmission among individuals, yet bees are predicted to express only two-thirds as many immunity genes as solitary insects, e.g., mosquito or fruit fly. This suggests that the immune response in bees is subdued in favor of social immunity, yet some specific immune factors are up-regulated in response to infection. To explore the response to infection more broadly, we employ mass spectrometry-based proteomics in a quantitative analysis of honey bee larvae infected with the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. Newly-eclosed bee larvae, in the second stage of their life cycle, are susceptible to this infection, but become progressively more resistant with age. We used this host-pathogen system to probe not only the role of the immune system in responding to a highly evolved infection, but also what other mechanisms might be employed in response to infection.
- Publication
BMC genomics, 2009, Vol 10, p387
- ISSN
1471-2164
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1186/1471-2164-10-387