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Virulence and polar tube protein genetic diversity of N osema ceranae ( M icrosporidia) field isolates from N orthern and S outhern E urope in honeybees ( A pis mellifera iberiensis )
Author(s) -
Van der Zee Romee,
GómezMoracho Tamara,
Pisa Lennard,
Sagastume Soledad,
GarcíaPalencia Pilar,
Maside Xulio,
Bartolomé Carolina,
MartínHernández Raquel,
Higes Mariano
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental microbiology reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.229
H-Index - 69
ISSN - 1758-2229
DOI - 10.1111/1758-2229.12133
Subject(s) - virulence , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , gene
Summary Infection of honeybees by the microsporidian N osema ceranae is considered to be one of the factors underlying the increased colony losses and decreased honey production seen in recent years. However, these effects appear to differ in function of the climatic zone, the distinct beekeeping practices and the honeybee species employed. Here, we compared the response of A pis mellifera iberiensis worker bees to experimental infection with field isolates of N. ceranae from an O ceanic climate zone in N orthern E urope ( N etherlands) and from a M editerranean region of S outhern E urope ( S pain). We found a notable but non‐significant trend ( P = 0.097) towards higher honeybee survival for bees infected with N. ceranae from the N etherlands, although no differences were found between the two isolates in terms of anatomopathological lesions in infected ventricular cells or the morphology of the mature and immature stages of the parasite. In addition, the population genetic survey of the N. ceranae PTP3 locus revealed high levels of genetic diversity within each isolate, evidence for meiotic recombination, and no signs of differentiation between the D utch and S panish populations. A cross‐infection study is needed to further explore the differences in virulence observed between the two N. ceranae populations in field conditions.