Comprehensive Approach to Phenotype Varroa destructor Reproduction in Honey Bee Drone Brood and Its Correlation with Decreased Mite Reproduction (DMR).

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms of action behind decreased mite reproduction (DMR) are still unknown, but current hypotheses state that DMR is the result of brood-intrinsic and/or external disturbances in the V. destructor-honey bee pupa signal interactions. For accurate and precise DMR phenotyping, sufficient single infested honey bee brood cells are required (e.g., 35), which requires extensive labor and time and may exclude many samples not reaching the threshold. We defined a new comprehensive trait called the 'mean V. destructor reproduction rate' (mVR), which describes the mean number of offspring mites per infested cell in the sample while compensating for the reduced number of offspring with increasing multiple infested cells. We found a significant correlation between mVR and DMR, al

SUBMITTER: Lefebre R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11203922 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature