Spores of an unidentified bacterium were discovered adhering to cuticles of third-stage infective juvenile (IJ) Steinernema diaprepesi endemic in a central Florida citrus orchard. The spores were cup-shaped, 5 to 6 mm in length, and contained a central endospore. Based on 16S rDNA gene sequencing, the bacterium is closely related to the insect pathogens Paenibacillus popilliae and P. lentimorbu...

After more than a century of American Foulbrood (AFB) research, this fatal brood infection is still among the most deleterious bee diseases. Its etiological agent is the Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. Huge progress has been made, especially in the last 20 years, in the understanding of the disease and of the underlying host-pathogen interactions. This review will p...

Paenibacillus larvae is the causative agent of the important honey bee larval disease American Foulbrood (AFB). This pathogen has been treated in bee colonies by a single registered antibiotic, oxytetracycline (OTC), for fifty years. Recently, widespread resistance to OTC has been reported. In this study, the degree of antibiotic resistance was contrasted with DNA sequence variation for 125 P. ...

AIM To develop a real-time PCR-based strategy for the detection of Paenibacillus larvae vegetative cells and spores to improve the diagnosis and the screening of American foulbrood (AFB), the most harmful pathology of honeybee brood. METHODS AND RESULTS A real-time PCR that allowed selective identification and quantification of P. larvae 16S rRNA sequence was developed. Using standard samples...

The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of tylosin were determined to 67 strains of Paenibacillus larvae subsp. larvae, the causal agent of American Foulbrood (AFB) disease, from different geographical origins. MIC values obtained ranged from 0.0078 to 0.5 microg/ml. These very low values imply that no resistance to tylosin was found in any isolate of the Foulbrood pathogen. The measuremen...

Propolis is a substance derived from antimicrobial plant resins that honey bees use in the construction of their nests. Propolis use in the hive is an important component of honey bee social immunity and confers a number of positive physiological benefits to bees. The benefits that bees derive from resins are mostly due to their antimicrobial properties, but it is unknown how the diversity of a...

The underwater silk of an aquatic casemaking caddisfly larvae (Hesperophylax occidentalis) is viscoelastic, and displays distinct yield behaviour, large strain cycle hysteresis and near complete recovery of its initial strength and stiffness when unloaded. Yield followed by a stress plateau has been attributed to sequential rupture of serial Ca(2+)-cross-linked phosphoserine (pS) β-domains. Spo...