Varroa destructor LC-MSMS crossing developmental stages and sexes

ABSTRACT: Varroa destructor is one of the most prevalent and economically damaging honey bee pests worldwide, weakening colonies by simultaneously parasitizing and transmitting damaging viruses. Despite these impacts on honey bee health, surprisingly little is known about its fundamental molecular biology. Here we present a high-resolution V. destructor protein atlas crossing all major developmental stages (egg, protonymph, deutonymph and adult) for both male and female mites as a web-based interactive tool. In a proteogenomic effort, we identified 1,464 unique peptides corresponding to 419 proteins which were previously unannotated and we included these in all subsequent analyses. In order to use mass spectrometry-based peptide sequencing to augment the genome annotation of non-model species, we analyzed their amino acid and nucleotide composition as well as orthology to other species to suggest reasons why they may have been missed initially. Using label-free quantitative proteomics, we found that 1,433 proteins were differentially regulated across developmental stages, including proteins belonging to deformed wing virus and V. destructor virus. One other virus – the bee macula-like virus – was also detected, along with the protein generated by its short 3’ overlapping reading frame. In addition, we found that 101 proteins are sexually regulated and functional enrichment analysis suggests how they may contribute to sex-specific phenotypes and behaviour. Overall, this work provides a first of its kind interrogation of the patterns of gene expression that govern the Varroa life cycle and the tools we have developed will support further research on this threatening honey bee pest.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Varroa Destructor

SUBMITTER: Alison McAfee  

LAB HEAD: Dr. Leonard Foster

PROVIDER: PXD006072 | Pride | 2017-09-06

REPOSITORIES: pride