Swarming motility and biofilm formation of Paenibacillus larvae, the etiological agent of American Foulbrood of honey bees (Apis mellifera).

ABSTRACT: American Foulbrood is a worldwide distributed, fatal disease of the brood of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). The causative agent of this fatal brood disease is the Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, which can be classified into four different genotypes (ERIC I-IV), with ERIC I and II being the ones isolated from contemporary AFB outbreaks. P. larvae is a peritrichously flagellated bacterium and, hence, we hypothesized that P. larvae is capable of coordinated and cooperative multicellular behaviors like swarming motility and biofilm formation. In order to analyze these behaviors of P. larvae, we firstly established appropriate functional assays. Using these assays we demonstrated that P. larvae ERIC II, but not P. larvae ERIC I, was capable of swarming. Swa

SUBMITTER: Funfhaus A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5995878 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature