Characterization of the honeybee AmNaV1 channel and tools to assess the toxicity of insecticides.

Pascal Gosselin-Badaroudine (1) , Adrien Moreau (1) , Lucie Delemotte (2) , Thierry Cens (3, 4) , Claude Collet (5) , Matthieu Rousset (3, 4) , Pierre Charnet (3, 4) , Michael L Klein (2) , Mohamed Chahine (1, 6)

1 CERVO - Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec [Canada]
2 Institute of Computational Molecular Science
3 CRBM - Centre de recherche en Biologie cellulaire de Montpellier
4 IBMM - Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron [Pôle Chimie Balard]
5 AE - Abeilles et Environnement
6 Department of Medecine

Pollination is important for both agriculture and biodiversity. For a significant number of plants, this process is highly, and sometimes exclusively, dependent on the pollination activity of honeybees. The large numbers of honeybee colony losses reported in recent years have been attributed to colony collapse disorder. Various hypotheses, including pesticide overuse, have been suggested to explain the disorder. Using the Xenopus oocytes expression system and two microelectrode voltage-clamp, we report the functional expression and the molecular, biophysical, and pharmacological characterization of the western honeybee's sodium channel (Apis Mellifera NaV1). The NaV1 channel is the primary target for pyrethroid insecticides in insect pests. We further report that the honeybee's channel is also sensitive to permethrin and fenvalerate, respectively type I and type II pyrethroid insecticides. Molecular docking of these insecticides revealed a binding site that is similar to sites previously identified in other insects. We describe in vitro and in silico tools that can be used to test chemical compounds. Our findings could be used to assess the risks that current and next generation pesticides pose to honeybee populations.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Pascal Gosselin-Badaroudine, Adrien Moreau, Lucie Delemotte, Thierry Cens, Claude Collet, et al.. Characterization of the honeybee AmNaV1 channel and tools to assess the toxicity of insecticides.. Scientific Reports, 2015, 5, 17 p. ⟨10.1038/srep12475⟩. ⟨hal-01220742⟩