Dataset Information

Intergenerational and biochemical responses of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) to sublethal perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposures.

ABSTRACT: Bees are threatened by multiple stressors, including environmental contaminants such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). In this exposure effect study, small whole colonies of A. mellifera (2500 bees) were exposed to sublethal PFOS concentrations (5 to 20 µg L-1 in sugar syrup) over a 25-day period using a purpose-built cage system. The PFOS was transferred to honey, accumulated in bee tissue, and was detected in faeces at all exposure concentrations. At the sublethal exposures, adult bee colonies in all treatments appeared healthy, colonies were sustained, brood was produced and resources stored, but adverse life stage development and intergenerational effects were evident even at the lowest exposure concentration of 5 µg L-1. Oxidative damage was not evident in bee heads based on protein carbonyl and malondialdehyde (MDA) biomarkers, but significant differential expression of some proteins essential for bee health was observed in the 10 (proteins n = 2) and 20 µg L-1 (proteins n = 15) exposure treatments. This study provides the first confirmation that sublethal PFOS exposure may adversely influence the long-term viability of honey bee colonies, and that PFOS will magnify in the bees and transfer to honey presenting a potential threat to food security and human health.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Apis Mellifera (honeybee)

TISSUE(S): Head, Insect Adult Head

DISEASE(S): Disease Free

SUBMITTER: Rohan Lowe

LAB HEAD: Carolyn A. Sonter

PROVIDER: PXD070054 | Pride | 2026-03-18

REPOSITORIES: Pride

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Publications

Intergenerational and Biochemical Responses of the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) to Sublethal Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Exposures.

Sonter Carolyn A CA Shakya Manisha M Tighe Matthew M Stevenson Gavin G Datta Keshava K Lowe Rohan G T RGT Holland Aleicia A Rader Romina R Wilson Susan C SC

Environmental science & technology 20260216

Bees are threatened by multiple stressors, including environmental contaminants such as perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS). In this exposure-effect study, small whole colonies of the western honey bee (A. mellifera) (2500 individual bees) were exposed to sublethal PFOS concentrations (5 to 20 μg L-1 in sugar syrup) over a 25-day period using a purpose-built cage system. The PFOS was transferred to honey, accumulated in bee tissue, and was detected in feces at all exposure concentr ...[more]

PMID: 41697234

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Project description:Purpose: Parts of Europe and the United States have witnessed dramatic losses in commercially managed honey bees over the past decade to what is considered an unsustainable extent. The large-scale loss of honey bees has considerable implications for the agricultural economy because honey bees are one of the leading pollinators of numerous crops. Honey bee declines have been associated with several interactive factors. Poor nutrition and viral infection are two environmental stressors that pose heightened dangers to honey bee health. Methods: We used RNA-sequencing to examine how monofloral diets (Rockrose and Chestnut) and Israeli acute paralysis virus inoculation influence gene expression patterns in honey bees. Results: We found a considerable nutritional response, with almost 2,000 transcripts changing with diet quality. The majority of these genes were over-represented for nutrient signaling (insulin resistance) and immune response (Notch signaling and JaK-STAT pathways). Somewhat unexpectedly, the transcriptomic response to viral infection was fairly limited. We only found 43 transcripts to be differentially expressed, some with known immune functions (argonaute-2), transcriptional regulation, and muscle contraction. We created contrasts to determine if any protective mechanisms of good diet were due to direct effects on immune function (resistance) or indirect effects on energy availability (tolerance). A similar number of resistance and tolerance candidate differentially expressed genes were found, suggesting both processes may play significant roles in dietary buffering from pathogen infection. We also compared the virus main effect in our study (polyandrous colonies) to that obtained in a previous study (single-drone colonies) and verified significant overlap in differential expression despite visualization methods showing differences in the noisiness levels between these two datasets. Conclusions: Through transcriptional contrasts and functional enrichment analysis, we add to evidence of feedbacks between diet and disease in honey bees. We also show that comparing results derived from polyandrous colonies (which are typically more natural) and single-drone colonies (which usually yield more signal) may allow researchers to identify transcriptomic patterns in honey bees that are concurrently less artificial and less noisy. Altogether, we hope this work underlines possible merits of using data visualization techniques and multiple datasets when interpreting RNA-sequencing studies.

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	20_ug_per_L_Rep_1.raw	Raw
	20_ug_per_L_Rep_2.raw	Raw

Dataset Information

Intergenerational and biochemical responses of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) to sublethal perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposures.

Dataset's files

Publications

Intergenerational and Biochemical Responses of the Western Honey Bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) to Sublethal Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Exposures.

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Dataset Information

Intergenerational and biochemical responses of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) to sublethal perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposures.

Dataset's files

Publications

Intergenerational and Biochemical Responses of the Western Honey Bee (&lt;i&gt;Apis mellifera&lt;/i&gt;) to Sublethal Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Exposures.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets

Intergenerational and Biochemical Responses of the Western Honey Bee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) to Sublethal Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) Exposures.