Could Colony Collapse Disorder be a prion disease?

[AlienGirl]

I've been reading about the decline of pollinators, particularly domesticated honeybees, and the theories going around about what's causing CCD. Do you know if anyone is researching the possibility that it might be caused by prions?

Tucker

[TZ]

1. No, I'm pretty sure they've figured out that CCD

has to do with a known parasite in bees.
Where do you get the idea that its prions? They have never been found in insects afaik. Just mammalian tissues.

[AlienGirl]

2. Last I heard, mites were one suspect, along with an RNA virus

I don't "get the idea" that CCD is caused by prions; I was just wondering whether anyone has looked into whether it *could* be caused by prions. That seemed to be the only thing no one was looking into. I'm between jobs and the weather's crappy, so it's either do housework, or find something interesting to research and think about for a while. Housework, bees...the choice is obvious.

It doesn't look like there's a consensus yet about the cause of CCD, but IAPV is a strong suspect. The weird thing about IAPV is that it's not a retrovirus but it inserts itself into the bee's genome as though it were--which causes some suspicion that it's being "assisted" by an unknown retrovirus. Tossing some further wild-ass linkages out there, it looks like prions can activate retroviruses in neurons....

Prion disorders linked to PrPSc have been modeled in fruit flies; and fish and birds are also susceptible to prion disorders, so it doesn't seem to be specific to mammals. And why should it be, anyway?

Tucker

[TZ]

3. prion specific diseases have only really been linked to mammals in the wild

like elk and deer and squirrels but mostly ungulates.and in fact its thought that Prions aren't like viri or bacteria but are rouge bits of protein..which is why I'm not sure anything like that could be found in insects..their biology is so much different..I've heard a little bit about maybe a viri of some sort but Retroviri in human aren't well understood let alone in insects. Again, from what I know, I'm not sure a prion is something that could even survive in the insect system, let alone attack the immune system (which is what CCD is causing..immune collapse).
I have never heard of a type of disease which is infectious between mammals, reptiles,birds, fish, insects..the biology is just very different. I could see maybe a prion LIKE disorder but in insects..I doubt it. At least not as prions are currently known.

[AlienGirl]

4. Are the proteins that make up insect tissues that different?

If prions are just misfolded proteins, wouldn't that make anything alive that requires the ordinary type of that protein suceptible?

I know that this is an intentionally generated model, but to me this article: http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/26/48/12408 makes it seem like misfolded prion proteins can affect insects (admittedly I'm not a biologist, so what do I know!).

Tucker

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Prions aren't just misfolded proteins.

They're misfolded fragments of a specific protein- PrP.

The PrP that humans and other mammals have is different from the isoform that insects and other non-mammals have, the latter of which does not misfold.

I believe in your link, they're dealing with a mutant fly which was specifically created to product a mammal-like PrP, for the purposes of using it as a model in basic research.

[AlienGirl]

6. Thank you! Okay, I'm out of excuses, I'll be back online when I'm done cleaning. nt