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Research Article

Neonicotinoid clothianidin adversely affects insect immunity and promotes replication of a viral pathogen in honey bees

Gennaro Di Prisco, Valeria Cavaliere, Desiderato Annoscia, Paola Varricchio, Emilio Caprio, Francesco Nazzi, Giuseppe Gargiulo, and Francesco Pennacchio
  1. aDipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, I-80055 Portici, Italy;
  2. bDipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie, Università di Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy; and
  3. cDipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Udine, I-33100 Udine, Italy

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PNAS November 12, 2013 110 (46) 18466-18471; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314923110
Gennaro Di Prisco
aDipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, I-80055 Portici, Italy;
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Valeria Cavaliere
bDipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie, Università di Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy; and
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Desiderato Annoscia
cDipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Udine, I-33100 Udine, Italy
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Paola Varricchio
aDipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, I-80055 Portici, Italy;
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Emilio Caprio
aDipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, I-80055 Portici, Italy;
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Francesco Nazzi
cDipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Udine, I-33100 Udine, Italy
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Giuseppe Gargiulo
bDipartimento di Farmacia e Biotecnologie, Università di Bologna, I-40126 Bologna, Italy; and
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Francesco Pennacchio
aDipartimento di Agraria, Laboratorio di Entomologia E. Tremblay, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, I-80055 Portici, Italy;
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  • For correspondence: f.pennacchio@unina.it
  1. Edited by Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL, and approved October 1, 2013 (received for review August 8, 2013)

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Significance

Honey bees are exposed to a wealth of synergistically interacting stress factors, which may induce colony losses often associated with high infection levels of pathogens. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been reported to enhance the impact of pathogens, but the underlying immune alteration is still obscure. In this study we describe the molecular mechanism through which clothianidin adversely affects the insect immune response and promotes replication of a viral pathogen in honey bees bearing covert infections. Our results shed light on a further level of regulation of the immune response in insects and have implications for bee conservation.

Abstract

Large-scale losses of honey bee colonies represent a poorly understood problem of global importance. Both biotic and abiotic factors are involved in this phenomenon that is often associated with high loads of parasites and pathogens. A stronger impact of pathogens in honey bees exposed to neonicotinoid insecticides has been reported, but the causal link between insecticide exposure and the possible immune alteration of honey bees remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin negatively modulates NF-κB immune signaling in insects and adversely affects honey bee antiviral defenses controlled by this transcription factor. We have identified in insects a negative modulator of NF-κB activation, which is a leucine-rich repeat protein. Exposure to clothianidin, by enhancing the transcription of the gene encoding this inhibitor, reduces immune defenses and promotes the replication of the deformed wing virus in honey bees bearing covert infections. This honey bee immunosuppression is similarly induced by a different neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, but not by the organophosphate chlorpyriphos, which does not affect NF-κB signaling. The occurrence at sublethal doses of this insecticide-induced viral proliferation suggests that the studied neonicotinoids might have a negative effect at the field level. Our experiments uncover a further level of regulation of the immune response in insects and set the stage for studies on neural modulation of immunity in animals. Furthermore, this study has implications for the conservation of bees, as it will contribute to the definition of more appropriate guidelines for testing chronic or sublethal effects of pesticides used in agriculture.

  • Apis mellifera
  • DWV
  • NLR (CLR)
  • neuroimmunity
  • toxicology

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: f.pennacchio{at}unina.it.
  • Author contributions: G.D.P., F.N., G.G., and F.P. designed research; G.D.P., V.C., D.A., P.V., and E.C. performed research; G.D.P., D.A., and F.N. analyzed data; and F.N., G.G., and F.P. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1314923110/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Clothianidin and insect immunity
Gennaro Di Prisco, Valeria Cavaliere, Desiderato Annoscia, Paola Varricchio, Emilio Caprio, Francesco Nazzi, Giuseppe Gargiulo, Francesco Pennacchio
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2013, 110 (46) 18466-18471; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1314923110

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Clothianidin and insect immunity
Gennaro Di Prisco, Valeria Cavaliere, Desiderato Annoscia, Paola Varricchio, Emilio Caprio, Francesco Nazzi, Giuseppe Gargiulo, Francesco Pennacchio
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2013, 110 (46) 18466-18471; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1314923110
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  • Applied Biological Sciences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 110 (46)
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