Establishment of a bacterial infection model using the European honeybee, Apis mellifera L

• Published in: PloS one 2014-02, Vol.9 (2), p.e89917
• Main Authors: Ishii, Kenichi, Hamamoto, Hiroshi, Sekimizu, Kazuhisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotics; Apis mellifera; Bacteria; Bacterial infections; Bacterial Infections - drug therapy; Bacterial Infections - physiopathology; Bees; Bees - microbiology; Biology; Cytokines; Disease Models, Animal; Drones; Drosophila melanogaster; Escherichia coli - genetics; Escherichia coli - pathogenicity; European honeybee; Experiments; Forage; Gene expression; Genomes; Genomics; Hemocoel; Honey; Infection; Infections; Injection; Insects; Laboratories; Lethal Dose 50; Listeria; Listeria monocytogenes; Listeria monocytogenes - pathogenicity; Medicine; Mutants; Oral administration; Paenibacillus; Pathogenesis; Pathogens; Pharmaceutical sciences; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - pathogenicity; Salmonella; Salmonella enterica - pathogenicity; Serratia marcescens - pathogenicity; Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects; Staphylococcus aureus - genetics; Staphylococcus aureus - pathogenicity; Temperature; Virulence; Virulence (Microbiology); Workers (insect caste)
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089917

Injection of human pathogenic bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes) into the hemocoel of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) workers kills the infected bees. The bee-killing effects of the pathogens were affected by temperature, and the LD₅₀ values at 37°C were more than 100-fold lower than those at 15°C. Gene-disrupted S. aureus mutants of virulence genes such as agrA, saeS, arlR, srtA, hla, and hlb had attenuated bee-killing ability. Nurse bees were less susceptible than foragers and drones to S. aureus infection. Injection of antibiotics clinically used for humans had therapeutic effects against S. aureus infections of bees, and the ED₅₀ values of these antibiotics were comparable with those determined in mammalian models. Moreover, the effectiveness of orally administered antibiotics was consistent between honeybees and mammals. These findings suggest that the honeybee could be a useful model for assessing the pathogenesis of human-infecting bacteria and the effectiveness of antibiotics.