Atypical Melissococcus plutonius strains: their characteristics, virulence, epidemiology, and mysteries.

ABSTRACT: Melissococcus plutonius is a Gram-positive lanceolate coccus that is the causative agent of European foulbrood, an important bacterial disease of honey bee brood. Although this bacterium was originally described in the early 20th century, a culture method for this bacterium was not established until more than 40 years after its discovery due to its fastidious characteristics, including the requirement for high potassium and anaerobic/microaerophilic conditions. These characteristics were considered to be common to the majority of M. plutonius strains isolated worldwide, and M. plutonius was also thought to be genetically homologous or clonal for years. However, non-fastidious variants of this species (designated as atypical M. plutonius) were very recently identified in Japan. Although the

SUBMITTER: Takamatsu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10539817 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature