Haemocyte surface determinants

Work package 5 (WP5) focusses on the cellular immunity of honeybees. Until now, the haemocytes in the haemolymph have been characterized based on their morphological features, adherence, lectin binding properties, granularity and movement (De Graaf et al., 2002; Gábor et al., 2020). They are responsible for nodulation, encapsulation and phagocytosis (Strachecka et al., 2021). In Better-B we aim to differentiate between the functional haemocyte types by performing haemocyte transcriptome and surface proteome studies. This deliverable (D5.1) is the first of three deliverables for WP5 ‘Immune Resilience’. It presents a set of results from task 5.1: ‘Mapping of the haemocyte surface determinants’. D5.1 describes the materials and methods and presents a list of identified surface determinants of Apis mellifera haemocytes of different developmental stages. This list was the result of generated proteomic and transcriptomic data. Combining the identified surface determinants with a literature search allowed various potential markers for haemocyte subpopulations to be discovered. Based on these results, surface determinants will be selected as targets to generate monoclonal antibodies (task 5.2).