Discovery and characterization of peptide ligands to investigate the neurobiology of the honeybee Apis mellifera and for the conception of eco-friendly insecticides – SPIDERBEE

Honeybees are major pollinators of both managed crops and wild flora. By the year 2006, a syndrome known as “colony collapse disorder” (or CCD) was initially reported in North America and then Europe, with 50% mortality on average (ranges 30-90%). Honeybee’s pollination is worth €153 billion worldwide, and their decline will have significant economic and environmental impacts.

While multifactorial in origin, the intensive spraying of insecticides likely plays a major role in the pollinator deaths. Acute toxicity of pyrethroids and neonicotinoids, the most widely used insecticides, occur via key ion channels. Even sub-lethal doses affect crucial functions in honeybee (foraging, learning and memory). Critically, the subtypes of ion channels involved in honeybee’s susceptibility to insecticides are unknown, and their identification and characterization are essential for the design of the next generation of eco-friendly insecticides. This year (2016), the deputies of the French National Assembly decided a full ban on neonicotinoids, effective from September 1, 2018. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the design of novel eco-friendly insecticides, but it requires first a better understanding of the honeybee’s basic neurobiology.

The overall aim of this integrative project is to provide the molecular tools to finely decipher the pharmacology and roles of each ion channel subtype in the neurobiology of honeybees, as well as to identify novel insecticide molecules that avoid these targets. This project will be achieved by taking advantage of the most recent developments in the field, such as successful cloning and expression of a suite of bee ion channels, combined with high throughput robotized screening strategy and state of the art transcriptomics and proteomics technologies. I propose here that venom from spiders (most successful insect killer on the planet) will provide both the molecular tools to investigate the role of various ion channels in the honeybee’s neurobiology as well as novel lead compounds for the design of eco-friendly insecticides.