Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on the production of royal jelly in Apis mellifera ligustica

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20250155

Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2026, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (2): 217-224.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20250155

• Animal Science • Previous Articles Next Articles

Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on the production of royal jelly in Apis mellifera ligustica

FAN Yingxi(), LIU Yao, ZHENG Qiulan, ZHENG Huoqing()

College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Received:2025-03-06 Online:2026-02-25 Published:2026-03-24

Abstract

Abstract:

To investigate the impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) on royal jelly production in Apis mellifera ligustica, newly emerged worker bees were fed sucrose solutions containing three different concentrations of IAPV, following confirmation of the virus’s preferential infection of the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands. Transcriptome sequencing was first employed to preliminarily assess the virus’s effects on royal jelly secretion. Subsequently, RT-qPCR and liquid chromatography were used to measure the relative expression levels of major royal jelly protein (mrjp) genes and the content of 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), respectively. The results showed that high-concentration viral inoculation significantly reduced worker bee survival rates, with a median lifespan of only 16.5 days, and markedly disrupted protein and fatty acid synthesis pathways in the bees’ heads. Further analysis by RT-qPCR and liquid chromatography revealed that, by day 18, high-concentration viral infection led to a 96% decrease in mrjp1 gene expression and an 11.98 μg reduction per bee in 10-HDA content. These findings demonstrate that IAPV impairs royal jelly secretion by suppressing the synthesis of major royal jelly proteins and fatty acids.

Key words: Apis mellifera ligustica, Israeli acute paralysis virus, royal jelly, production trait

CLC Number:

S895

FAN Yingxi, LIU Yao, ZHENG Qiulan, ZHENG Huoqing. Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on the production of royal jelly in Apis mellifera ligustica[J]. Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis, 2026, 38(2): 217-224.

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1 Information of primers for Israeli acute paralysis virus and mrjp genes

病毒或基因名称 Name of virus or gene	正向引物序列(5'→3') Forward primer sequence(5'→3')	反向引物序列(5'→3') Reverse primer sequence(5'→3')	参考文献 Reference
以色列急性麻痹病毒	TCGCTGAAGGCATGTATTTC	ATTACCACTGCTCCGACACA	[15]
Israeli acute paralysis virus
mrjp1	TATTCCATTGCTTCGTTACTCG	TCTTGTCTTCTTTCATCGCTACC	[16]
mrjp2	AACTGTACCTGTATGTGCTCCAAA	TATAGCTTGAACAGCCAAAGACAC	[16]
mrjp3	GATGTGGACAGATGGCGTGA	CTGTCAAATTTGTCGACCGCA	[17]
β-actin	TTGTATGCCAACACTGTCCTTT	TGGCGCGATGATCTTAATTT	[18]

Fig.1 Tissue tropism of Israeli acute paralysis virus The viral copy number is expressed as the common logarithm value.Data on the columns marked without the same lowercase letter indicated significant differences at p<0.05. The same as below.

Fig.2 Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on worker bees physiology A, Viral titer in worker bee heads after treatment with different concentrations of IAPV; B, Survival rate of worker bees following treatment with different concentrations of IAPV; C, Food consumption of work bees after treatment with different concentrations of IAPV. ADI, Average daily intake. Dots in the line marked without the same letters indicate significant difference at p<0.05. * indicates p<0.05, ** indicates p<0.01, *** indicates p<0.001.

Fig.3 Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on the transcriptional profile of worker bees heads A, Principal component analysis of head gene expression; B, Volcano plot of differentially expressed genes; C, Genes exhibiting the most significant expression differences; D, GO functional enrichment analysis of DEG; E, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of DEG; F, Protein-protein interaction network of DEG.

Fig.4 Relative expression levels of mrjp1(A), mrjp2(B), mrjp3(C) in the heads of worker bees after infection with different concentrations of Israeli acute paralysis virus The dashed line indicates the control group. * indicates the significant difference (p<0.05) compared with the control group.

Fig.5 10-HDA content in the head of individual worker bees on day 18

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Impact of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on the production of royal jelly in Apis mellifera ligustica

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