ArticleMolecular ecology2019
Caste- and pesticide-specific effects of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure on gene expression in bumblebees.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-Analysis of Public RNA Sequencing Data Revealed Potential Key Genes Associated with Reproductive Division of Labor in Social Hymenoptera and Termites.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Comparative genomics of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors reveals early divergence of the α6 subunit in cryptic Anopheles species.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Pesticide and Pathogen Exposure Causes Idiosyncratic Gene Expression Responses Across Four Diverse North American Bumble Bee Species.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- A Genome-Wide Analysis of Structure and Evolution in Irish and British Populations ofEvolutionary applications · 2025Article
- Acute and chronic pesticide exposure trigger fundamentally different molecular responses in bumble bee brains.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Worker Survival and Egg Production-But Not Transcriptional Activity-Respond to Queen Number in the Highly Polygynous, Invasive Ant Tapinoma magnum.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Article
- Effects of pesticide-adjuvant combinations used in almond orchards on olfactory responses to social signals in honey bees (Apis mellifera).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Unexpected worker mating and colony-founding in a superorganism.Nature communications · 2023Article
- A New Approach for Detecting Sublethal Effects of Neonicotinoids on Bumblebees Using Optical Sensor Technology.Insects · 2023Article
- Gene expression in bumble bee larvae differs qualitatively between high and low concentration imidacloprid exposure levels.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Diesel exhaust particles alter gut microbiome and gene expression in the bumblebeeEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Signatures of Adaptation, Constraints, and Potential Redundancy in the Canonical Immune Genes of a Key Pollinator.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Expression of subunits of an insecticide target receptor varies across tissues, life stages, castes, and species of social bees.Molecular ecology · 2023Article
- Microbiome variation correlates with the insecticide susceptibility in different geographic strains of a significant agricultural pest, Nilaparvata lugens.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2023Article
- Using physiology to better support wild bee conservation.Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- Intra-specific variation in sensitivity of Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis to three pesticides.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Synergistic Effect of Thiamethoxam and Synapsin dsRNA Targets Neurotransmission to Induce Mortality inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Assessing Anatomical Changes in Male Reproductive Organs in Response to Larval Crowding Using Micro-computed Tomography Imaging.Neotropical entomology · 2022Article
- Genomic Signatures of Recent Adaptation in a Wild Bumblebee.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social bees are important insect pollinators of wildflowers and agricultural crops, making their reported declines a global concern. A major factor implicated in these declines is the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides. Indeed, recent research has demonstrated that exposure to low doses of these neurotoxic pesticides impairs bee behaviours important for colony function and survival. However, our understanding of the molecular-genetic pathways that lead to such effects is limited, as is our knowledge of how effects may differ between colony members. To understand what genes and pathways are affected by exposure of bumblebee workers and queens to neonicotinoid pesticides, we implemented a transcriptome-wide gene expression study. We chronically exposed Bombus terrestriscolonies to either clothianidin or imidacloprid at field-realistic concentrations while controlling for factors including colony social environment and worker age. We reveal that genes involved in important biological processes including mitochondrial function are differentially expressed in response to neonicotinoid exposure. Additionally, clothianidin exposure had stronger effects on gene expression amplitude and alternative splicing than imidacloprid. Finally, exposure affected workers more strongly than queens. Our work demonstrates how RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling can provide detailed novel insight on the mechanisms mediating pesticide toxicity to a key insect pollinator.
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