ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Insect Sci.
Sec. Insect Health and Pathology
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/finsc.2025.1583941
A miR-JL-5 inhibitor modulates the proliferation of Nosema ceranae in Apis cerana
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangxi Biotech Vocational College, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China
- 2Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China
- 3Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Honeybee Biology and Bee Keeping, Nanchang, China
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Background and aims: Apis cerana is the native host of Nosema ceranae (N. ceranae). Previous studies reported that N. ceranae was more harmful to the new host (Apis mellifera) than the original host that had spread globally and become one of the factors implicated in honeybee colony collapses. Therefore, it was essential to study the relationship between Apis cerana and N. ceranae for the prevention and control of the disease.In order to effectively block the regulation of spore proliferation in honeybees, we designed a miR-JL-5 inhibitor. In this study, infected bees (Apis cerana) were fed sugar water with N. ceranae miR-JL-5 inhibitor in incubators using RNA interference technology. The spores load and the expression of microRNA, DEmRNA, and target gene among miRNA inhibitor group, infection group, and miRNA scramble group were compared.Both the biological functions of miR-JL-5 and the target gene of miRNAJL-5, were verified using RNA interference.Results: Our results showed that expression levels of JL-5 and the spore load in the miRNA inhibitor group were significantly lower than those in the infection and miRNA-scramble groups. We predicted that 847 honeybee genes and 133 N. ceranae genes can be targeted by the miR-JL-5. Whole transcriptome sequencing results showed that a total of 5 honeybee DEmRNAs, and 0 N. ceranae DEmRNA were identified in miRNA inhibitor group, infection group, and miRNA scramble group, in which only the honeybee mucin-19-like gene was the target gene by miR-JL-5.Conclusion: These findings reveal that feeding miR-JL-5 inhibitor could reduce N. ceranae levels by altering the expression of miR-JL-5 and related target gene (honeybee mucin-19-like gene). Our results provide insights into role that microRNA regulates the proliferation of N. ceranae in Apis cerana.
Keywords: Honeybees, Microsporidia, microRNA inhibitor, RNA-Seq, target gene expression
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Xiao, He and Zeng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xu Jiang He, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China
Zhi Jiang Zeng, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China
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