Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm.
Extreme temperatures associated with climate change are expected to impact the physiology and fertility of a variety of insects, including honey bees. Most previous work on this topic has focused on female honey bees (workers and queens), and comparatively little research has investigated how heat e...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317672 |
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| author | Alison McAfee Bradley N Metz Patrick Connor Keana Du Christopher W Allen Luis A Frausto Mark P Swenson Kylah S Phillips Madison Julien Zoe Rempel Robert W Currie Boris Baer David R Tarpy Leonard J Foster |
| author_facet | Alison McAfee Bradley N Metz Patrick Connor Keana Du Christopher W Allen Luis A Frausto Mark P Swenson Kylah S Phillips Madison Julien Zoe Rempel Robert W Currie Boris Baer David R Tarpy Leonard J Foster |
| author_sort | Alison McAfee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Extreme temperatures associated with climate change are expected to impact the physiology and fertility of a variety of insects, including honey bees. Most previous work on this topic has focused on female honey bees (workers and queens), and comparatively little research has investigated how heat exposure affects males (drones). To address this gap, we tested body mass, viral infections, and population origin as predictors of drone survival and sperm viability in a series of heat challenge assays. We found that individual body mass was highly influential, with heavier drones being more likely to survive a heat challenge (4 h at 42°C) than smaller drones. In a separate experiment, we compared the survival of Northern California and Southern California drones in response to the same heat challenge (4 h at 42°C), and found that Southern Californian drones - which are enriched for African ancestry - were more likely to survive a heat challenge than drones originating from Northern California. To avoid survivor bias, we conducted sperm heat challenges using in vitro assays and found remarkable variation in sperm heat resilience among drones sourced from different commercial beekeeping operations, with some exhibiting no reduction in sperm viability after heat challenge and others exhibiting a 75% reduction in sperm viability. Further investigating potential causal factors for such variation, we found no association between drone mass and viability of sperm in in vitro sperm heat challenge assays, but virus inoculation (with Israeli acute paralysis virus) exacerbated the negative effect of heat on sperm viability. These experiments establish a vital framework for understanding the importance of population origin and comorbidities for drone heat sensitivity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b63a9b2c7e20488fa99337adf69eb3a9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-b63a9b2c7e20488fa99337adf69eb3a92025-02-12T05:31:09ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01202e031767210.1371/journal.pone.0317672Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm.Alison McAfeeBradley N MetzPatrick ConnorKeana DuChristopher W AllenLuis A FraustoMark P SwensonKylah S PhillipsMadison JulienZoe RempelRobert W CurrieBoris BaerDavid R TarpyLeonard J FosterExtreme temperatures associated with climate change are expected to impact the physiology and fertility of a variety of insects, including honey bees. Most previous work on this topic has focused on female honey bees (workers and queens), and comparatively little research has investigated how heat exposure affects males (drones). To address this gap, we tested body mass, viral infections, and population origin as predictors of drone survival and sperm viability in a series of heat challenge assays. We found that individual body mass was highly influential, with heavier drones being more likely to survive a heat challenge (4 h at 42°C) than smaller drones. In a separate experiment, we compared the survival of Northern California and Southern California drones in response to the same heat challenge (4 h at 42°C), and found that Southern Californian drones - which are enriched for African ancestry - were more likely to survive a heat challenge than drones originating from Northern California. To avoid survivor bias, we conducted sperm heat challenges using in vitro assays and found remarkable variation in sperm heat resilience among drones sourced from different commercial beekeeping operations, with some exhibiting no reduction in sperm viability after heat challenge and others exhibiting a 75% reduction in sperm viability. Further investigating potential causal factors for such variation, we found no association between drone mass and viability of sperm in in vitro sperm heat challenge assays, but virus inoculation (with Israeli acute paralysis virus) exacerbated the negative effect of heat on sperm viability. These experiments establish a vital framework for understanding the importance of population origin and comorbidities for drone heat sensitivity.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317672 |
| spellingShingle | Alison McAfee Bradley N Metz Patrick Connor Keana Du Christopher W Allen Luis A Frausto Mark P Swenson Kylah S Phillips Madison Julien Zoe Rempel Robert W Currie Boris Baer David R Tarpy Leonard J Foster Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. PLoS ONE |
| title | Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. |
| title_full | Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. |
| title_fullStr | Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. |
| title_short | Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm. |
| title_sort | factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees apis mellifera and their sperm |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317672 |
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