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Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees
Melissococcus plutonius is a bacterial pathogen that causes epidemic outbreaks of European foulbrood (EFB) in honey bee populations. The pathogenicity of a bacterium depends on its virulence, and understanding the mechanisms influencing virulence may allow for improved disease control and containmen...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7567439/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32456539 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2020.1768338 |
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author | Grossar, Daniela Kilchenmann, Verena Forsgren, Eva Charrière, Jean-Daniel Gauthier, Laurent Chapuisat, Michel Dietemann, Vincent |
author_facet | Grossar, Daniela Kilchenmann, Verena Forsgren, Eva Charrière, Jean-Daniel Gauthier, Laurent Chapuisat, Michel Dietemann, Vincent |
author_sort | Grossar, Daniela |
collection | PubMed |
description | Melissococcus plutonius is a bacterial pathogen that causes epidemic outbreaks of European foulbrood (EFB) in honey bee populations. The pathogenicity of a bacterium depends on its virulence, and understanding the mechanisms influencing virulence may allow for improved disease control and containment. Using a standardized in vitro assay, we demonstrate that virulence varies greatly among sixteen M. plutonius isolates from five European countries. Additionally, we explore the causes of this variation. In this study, virulence was independent of the multilocus sequence type of the tested pathogen, and was not affected by experimental co-infection with Paenibacillus alvei, a bacterium often associated with EFB outbreaks. Virulence in vitro was correlated with the growth dynamics of M. plutonius isolates in artificial medium, and with the presence of a plasmid carrying a gene coding for the putative toxin melissotoxin A. Our results suggest that some M. plutonius strains showed an increased virulence due to the acquisition of a toxin-carrying mobile genetic element. We discuss whether strains with increased virulence play a role in recent EFB outbreaks. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7567439 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Taylor & Francis |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75674392020-10-26 Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees Grossar, Daniela Kilchenmann, Verena Forsgren, Eva Charrière, Jean-Daniel Gauthier, Laurent Chapuisat, Michel Dietemann, Vincent Virulence Research Paper Melissococcus plutonius is a bacterial pathogen that causes epidemic outbreaks of European foulbrood (EFB) in honey bee populations. The pathogenicity of a bacterium depends on its virulence, and understanding the mechanisms influencing virulence may allow for improved disease control and containment. Using a standardized in vitro assay, we demonstrate that virulence varies greatly among sixteen M. plutonius isolates from five European countries. Additionally, we explore the causes of this variation. In this study, virulence was independent of the multilocus sequence type of the tested pathogen, and was not affected by experimental co-infection with Paenibacillus alvei, a bacterium often associated with EFB outbreaks. Virulence in vitro was correlated with the growth dynamics of M. plutonius isolates in artificial medium, and with the presence of a plasmid carrying a gene coding for the putative toxin melissotoxin A. Our results suggest that some M. plutonius strains showed an increased virulence due to the acquisition of a toxin-carrying mobile genetic element. We discuss whether strains with increased virulence play a role in recent EFB outbreaks. Taylor & Francis 2020-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7567439/ /pubmed/32456539 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2020.1768338 Text en © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Paper Grossar, Daniela Kilchenmann, Verena Forsgren, Eva Charrière, Jean-Daniel Gauthier, Laurent Chapuisat, Michel Dietemann, Vincent Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title | Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title_full | Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title_fullStr | Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title_full_unstemmed | Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title_short | Putative determinants of virulence in Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing European foulbrood in honey bees |
title_sort | putative determinants of virulence in melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial agent causing european foulbrood in honey bees |
topic | Research Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7567439/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32456539 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2020.1768338 |
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