Analysis of the global population structure of Paenibacillus larvae and outbreak investigation of American foulbrood using a stable wgMLST scheme

Papić, Bojan (author), Diricks, Margo (author), Kušar, Darja (author)

Paenibacillus larvae causes the American foulbrood (AFB), a highly contagious and devastating disease of honeybees. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been increasingly used in bacterial pathogen typing, but rarely applied to study the epidemiology of P. larvae. To this end, we used 125 P. larvae genomes representative of a species-wide diversity to construct a stable whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST) scheme consisting of 5745 loci. A total of 51 P. larvae isolates originating from AFB outbreaks in Slovenia were used to assess the epidemiological applicability of the developed wgMLST scheme. In addition, wgMLST was compared with the core-genome MLST (cgMLST) and whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (wgSNP) analyses. All three approaches successfully identified clusters of outbreak-associated strains, which were clearly separated from the epidemiologically unlinked isolates. High levels of backward comparability of WGS-based analyses with conventional typing methods (ERIC-PCR and MLST) were revealed; however, both conventional methods lacked sufficient discriminatory power to separate the outbreak clusters. The developed wgMLST scheme provides an improved understanding of the intra- and inter-outbreak genetic diversity of P. larvae and represents an important progress in unraveling the genomic epidemiology of this important honeybee pathogen.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Paenibacillus larvae, American foulbrood, whole-genome sequencing, whole-genome multilocus sequence typing, core-genome multilocus sequence typing, whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism, genotype, molecular sequence
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: VF - Veterinary Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 15 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 8, art. 582677
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-132077
• UDC: 577
• ISSN on article: 2297-1769
• DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.582677
• COBISS.SI-ID: 53310723
• Publication date in RUL: 11.10.2021

PAPIĆ, Bojan, DIRICKS, Margo and KUŠAR, Darja, 2021, Analysis of the global population structure of Paenibacillus larvae and outbreak investigation of American foulbrood using a stable wgMLST scheme. Frontiers in veterinary science [online]. 2021. Vol. 8, no. 582677. [Accessed 11 April 2025]. DOI 10.3389/fvets.2021.582677. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=132077

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in veterinary science
• Shortened title: Front. vet. sci.
• Publisher: Frontiers Media
• ISSN: 2297-1769
• COBISS.SI-ID: 3969402

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: V4-1804
• Name: Ugotavljanje poti širjenja hude gnilobe čebelje zalege z genetsko tipizacijo sevov povzročitelja bolezni

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food