Comparative genome analysis of two Spiroplasma melliferum isolates

Figure 4 from Lo et al., 2013.  (Open Access)

About 1 year following the publication of a genome assembly for Spiroplasma melliferum KC3 by Dmitry Alexeev and colleagues comes an assembly from S. melliferum isolate IPMB4A by Wen-Sui Lo and colleagues. 

The papers:

Alexeev et al., 2012. Application of Spiroplasma melliferum proteogenomic profiling for the discovery of virulence factors and pathogenicity mechanisms in host-associated sprioplasmas. J. Proteome Res. 11(1), pp224-236.

 Wen-Sui Lo, L. Chen, W. Chung, G. Gasparich and C. Kuo. 2013. Comparative genome analysis of Spiroplasma melliferum IPMB4A, a honeybee-associated bacterium. BMC Genomics, 14:22.

Elroy the Bee Dog

Another Bee Dog to introduce!

This is Elroy, a springer spaniel trained by Martin Dominick in Australia to sniff out honey bee hives with American Foulbrood (AFB) disease.

Image from the Australian Government RIRDC.

Like Klinker the black lab from the Maryland Dept. of Agriculture, mentioned in an earlier post, Elroy is employed to seek out any honey bee colony that is infected with the AFB bacteria Paenibacillus larvae.  These bee dogs are able to do this work much faster and arguably more effectively than bee keepers (no offense intended to bee keepers).  Elroy even had a bee suit made especially for him so he could work at anytime and not worry about stings.  That's pretty darn cute.

Images of the article written about Elroy back in 2011 by the Australian Government Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation:

Taxonomic description of a Betaproteobacteria and a Gammaproteobacteria-1 from the honey bee gut

Nancy Moran's lab has worked with these two honey bee gut bugs previously, producing several prior publications.  A recent paper in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology by Waldan Kwong and Nancy Moran is important, however, as it provides the official and exhaustive work necessary to formally denominate these two new species.  It's also cool because they came up with some fun and worthy names for them!

The Beta, Snodgrassella alvi, is named after the American entomologist Robert Evans Snodgrass (1875-1962) whose numerous authorships include "The Anatomy of the Honeybee".  The specific epithet, alvi, is Latin for 'gut of bees'.  S. alvi was isolated not only from honey bees (Apis mellifera) but also from bumblebees (Bombus bimaculatus and Bombus vagrans).

The Gamma-1, Gilliamella apicola, is named in honor of the American microbiologist Martha A. Gilliam, who has worked extensively with the honey bee microbiota with interest in how these microbes can protect bees from harmful pathogens.  'Bee-dweller' is the translated Latin for the specific epithet apicola.  G. apicola was isolated not only from honey bees (Apis mellifera) but also from bumblebees (Bombus bimaculatus and Bombus vagrans).  In addition, Kwong and Moran determined that G. apicola-like bacteria also occur in a number of other bee species by analyzing previously identified bacteria sequences isolated from the Asian and giant honey bees (Apis cerana and Apis dorsata) and additional bumblebees (Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens).  As if describing the type species for this new genus wasn't enough, G. apicola belongs to a new Order (Orbales) and Family (Orbaceae), also described here by Kwong and Moran!

There is substantial genetic diversity in these groups, with isolates from the same bee host species more closely related to one another than to similar bacteria from other bee species.  This may be due to a close evolutionary history between bee host and their specific bacteria strain.  Thus, distinct Gilliamella and Snodgrassella species are likely to be discerned in future research.  

A link to the article published in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology is here:  Kwong and Moran, 2012

Cultivation and characterization of the gut symbionts of honey bees and bumble bees: Snodgrassella alvi gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the Neisseriaceae family of the Betaproteobacteria; and Gilliamella apicola gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of Orbaceae fam. nov., Orbales ord. nov., a sister taxon to the Enterobacteriales order of the Gammaproteobacteria

1. Waldan K. Kwong and
2. Nancy A. Moran

1. Yale University

Dogs sniff out pathogenic bacteria in honey bee colonies

I'm a big fan of canines, and here is my favorite example of how to look for bee bugs.  This is William Troup and Klinker, working for the Maryland Department of Agriculture inspecting honey bee colonies.  Klinker, a black lab, was scent trained on American foul brood (AFB; Paenibacillus larvae), a pathogenic bacteria of European honey bee larvae that create a very distinct smell when present.

Picture from the Maryland Dept. of Agriculture

Once scent trained, dogs can be used to quickly assess colonies for any scent of the bacteria.  Having such a sensitive sense of smell, dogs can detect AFB even at low levels.  This prevents cracking open a hive and pulling out frames one by one to assess them for signs of AFB, particularly beneficial in early Spring when it still may be quite cold out and the girls need to keep in warmth for the developing brood.

If anyone knows of additional dog nose work training in other states/countries to detect pathogens or has updates on Klinker and William Troup at the MDA, please share the knowledge and post a comment.  I'd love to learn more about this.

A link to the MDA Apiary Inspection site is here:  http://mda2.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Pages/apiary_inspection.aspx