Metagenomic analysis of Varroa-free Australian honey bees (Apis mellifera) shows a diverse Picornavirales virome

Abstract

The viral landscape of the honey bee (Apismellifera) has changed as a consequence of the global spread of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and accompanying virulent strains of the iflavirus deformed wing virus (DWV), which the mite vectors. The presence of DWV in honey bee populations is known to influence the occurrence of other viruses, suggesting that the current known virome of A. mellifera may be undercharacterized. Here we tested this hypothesis by examining the honey bee virome in Australia, which is uniquely free of parasitic mites or DWV. Using a high-throughput sequencing (HTS) approach, we examined the RNA virome from nine pools of A. mellifera across Australia. In addition to previously reported honey bee viruses, several other insect viruses were detected, including strains related to aphid lethal paralysis virus (ALPV) and Rhopalosiphum padi virus (RhPV), which have recently been identified as infecting honey bees in the USA, as well as several other viruses recently found in Drosophila spp. A further 42 putative novel insect virus genomes spanning the order Picornavirales were assembled, which significantly increases the known viral diversity in A. mellifera. Among these novel genomes, we identified several that were similar (but different) to key A. mellifera viruses, such as DWV, that warrant further investigation. We propose that A. mellifera may be preferentially infected with viruses of the order Picornavirales and that a diverse population of these viruses may be representative of a Varroa-free landscape.

Keywords: RNA viruses; dicistrovirus; iflavirus; next-generation sequencing; pollinator; virus discovery.