Journal Article

Biology of Paenibacillus larvae, a deadly pathogen of honey bee larvae

Knispel, Henriette, Fünfhaus, Anne, Genersch, Elke, Hertlein, Gillian, Ebeling, Julia

2016

Overview

The gram-positive bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is the etiological agent of American Foulbrood of honey bees, a notifiable disease in many countries. Hence, P. larvae can be considered as an entomopathogen of considerable relevance in veterinary medicine. P. larvae is a highly specialized pathogen with only one established host, the honey bee larva. No other natural environment supporting germination and proliferation of P. larvae is known. Over the last decade, tremendous progress in the understanding of P. larvae and its interactions with honey bee larvae at a molecular level has been made. In this review, we will present the recent highlights and developments in P. larvae research and discuss the impact of some of the findings in a broader context to demonstrate what we can learn from studying “exotic” pathogens.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: American foul brood / American foulbrood / Animals / Apis mellifera / Bacillus / Bacteria / Bacterial Toxins - metabolism / Bees / Bees - microbiology / Biology / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biotechnology / Disease / entomopathogens / Epidemiology / European honeybee / Food contamination & poisoning / Germination / Gram-positive bacteria / Health aspects / Honey / honey bees / Host Specificity / Host-Pathogen Interactions - physiology / Infections / insect larvae / Laboratories / Larva - microbiology / Larvae / Life Sciences / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Microbiology / Mini-Review / Natural environment / notifiable disease / Observations / Paenibacillus larvae / Paenibacillus larvae - genetics / Paenibacillus larvae - metabolism / Paenibacillus larvae - pathogenicity / Pathogens / Proteins / Studies / Toxins / Veterinary medicine / Virulence / Virulence (Microbiology)