Environmental Microbiology (2010) 12, 2838-2845

Dieter Behrens, Eva Forsgren, Ingemar Fries and Robin F.A. Moritz (2010)
Lethal infection thresholds of Paenibacillus larvae for honeybee drone and worker larvae (Apis mellifera)
Environmental Microbiology 12 (10), 2838-2845
Abstract: We compared the mortality of honeybee (Apis mellifera) drone and worker larvae from a single queen under controlled in vitro conditions following infection with Paenibacillus larvae, a bacterium causing the brood disease American Foulbrood (AFB). We also determined absolute P. larvae cell numbers and lethal titres in deceased individuals of both sexes up to 8 days post infection using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Our results show that in drones the onset of infection induced mortality is delayed by 1 day, the cumulative mortality is reduced by 10% and P. larvae cell numbers are higher than in worker larvae. Since differences in bacterial cell titres between sexes can be explained by differences in body size, larval size appears to be a key parameter for a lethal threshold in AFB tolerance. Both means and variances for lethal thresholds are similar for drone and worker larvae suggesting that drone resistance phenotypes resemble those of related workers.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Dieter Behrens, Ingemar Fries

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Paenibacillus larvae