Water activity of the bee fungal pathogen Ascosphaera apis in relation to colony conditions

ABSTRACTAscosphaera apis is widespread fungal pathogen of honeybee larvae, causing chalkbrood, a chronic disease that weakens bee health and colony productivity. In this article, mecylia and spores of A. apis were respectively purified followed by RNA isolation, cDNA library construction, MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq. A total of 62,551,172, 41,773,158, 49,535,092 and 61,569,610 raw reads were produced from Aam_IP, Aas_IP, Aam_input and Aas_input groups, respectively. After quality control, 58,484,368, 37,381,432, 44,655,434 and 58,739,742 clean reads were obtained. Furthermore, 47,706,205, 31,356,690, 35,259,810 and 44,319,061 clean reads were mapped to the reference genome of A. apis, including 39,337,036, 26,731,957, 31,987,396 and 40,017,855 unique mapped reads, and 8,369,169, 4,624,733, 3,272,414 and 4,301,206 multiple mapped reads. Among them, 96.31%, 96.51%, 96.82% and 97.11% of clean reads were mapped to exons; 2.09%, 2.31%,1.83% and 1.81% to introns; 1.60%, 1.18%, 1.35% and 1.08% to intergenic regions.Value of the dataThe data can be used to investigate the relationship between the m6A modification extent and the transcript level in the A. apis transcriptome.This dataset contributes to transcriptome-wide characterization of the m6A distributing patterns in mRNAs and non-coding RNAs in A. apis mycelium and spore.Current data benefits new functions of m6A modification in the transcripts extensively modified by m6A in A. apis mycelium and spore.Our data could be used to characterize differential patterns of the m6A methylation between mycelium and spore of A. apis.

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Co-incubation of dsRNA reduces proportion of viable spores of Ascosphaera apis, a honey bee fungal pathogen

Journal of Apicultural Research ◽

10.1080/00218839.2020.1754090 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 59 (5) ◽

pp. 791-799

Author(s):

James P. Tauber ◽

Ralf Einspanier ◽

Jay D. Evans ◽

Dino P. McMahon

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Ascosphaera Apis

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Nanopore long-read transcriptome data of fungal pathogen of chalkbrood disease, Ascosphaera apis

10.1101/2020.03.12.989863 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Yu Du ◽

Huazhi Chen ◽

Jie Wang ◽

Zhiwei Zhu ◽

Cuiling Xiong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alternative Splicing ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Length Distribution ◽

Full Length ◽

List Type ◽

Transcriptome Data ◽

Ascosphaera Apis ◽

Oxford Nanopore ◽

Long Read ◽

Colony Productivity

ABSTRACTAscosphaera apis is a fungal pathogen that exclusively infects honeybee larvae, leading to chalkbrood disease, which damages the number of adult honeybees and colony productivity. In this article, A. apis mecylia and spores were respectively purified followed by Oxford Nanopore sequencing via PromethION platform. In total, 6,321,704 and 6,259,727 raw reads were generated from Aam and Aas, with a length distribution among 1 kb~10 kb. The quality (Q) scores of majority of raw reads were Q9 (Aam) and Q11 (Aas). Additionally, 5,669,436 and 6,233,159 clean reads were gained, among them 79.32% and 79.62% were identified as being full-length. The lengths of redundant reads-removed full-length transcripts were among 1 kb~8 kb and 1 kb~9 kb, and most abundant length for both was 1 kb. Furthermore, the length of redundant transcripts-removed clean reads was ranged from 1 kb~7 kb, with the largest group of 1 kb. The data reported here provides a beneficial genetic resource for improving genome and transcriptome annotations of A. apis and for exploring alternative splicing and polyadenylation of A. apis mRNAs.Value of the resultCurrent dataset enables better understanding of the complexity of A. apis transcriptome.The long-read transcriptome data can be used to identify of genes and transcripts associated with A. apis infection mechanism.The accessible data provides full-length transcripts for improving gene structure and functional annotation of A. apis transcriptome.This dataset could be utilized for investigation of alternative splicing and polyadenylation of A. apis mRNAs.

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High mobility group (HMG-box) genes in the honeybee fungal pathogen Ascosphaera apis

Mycologia ◽

10.3852/mycologia.99.4.553 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 99 (4) ◽

pp. 553-561 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

K.A. Aronstein ◽

K.D. Murray ◽

J.H. de Leon ◽

X. Qin ◽

G.M. Weinstock

Keyword(s):

Fungal Pathogen ◽

High Mobility ◽

High Mobility Group ◽

Ascosphaera Apis ◽

Hmg Box

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Changes in Antioxidant Enzymes Activity and Metabolomic Profiles in the Guts of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Larvae Infected with Ascosphaera apis

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects11070419 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 419

Author(s):

Zhiguo Li ◽

Mengshang Hou ◽

Yuanmei Qiu ◽

Bian Zhao ◽

Hongyi Nie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oxidative Stress ◽

Antioxidant Enzymes ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Disease Diagnosis ◽

Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay ◽

Antioxidant Enzyme Activities ◽

Ascosphaera Apis ◽

Specific Activities ◽

Honey Bee Larvae

The fungus Ascosphaera apis, an obligate fungal pathogen of honey bee brood, causes chalkbrood disease in honey bee larvae worldwide. Biological characteristics of the fungal pathogen and the molecular interactions between A. apis and honey bees have been studied extensively. However, little is known about the effects of A. apis infection on antioxidant enzyme activities and metabolic profiles of the gut of honey bee larvae. In this study, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and LC-MS based untargeted metabolomic analysis were employed to determine the changes in the specific activities of antioxidant enzymes and the metabolomic profiles in gut tissues of A. apis-infected larvae (105 A. apis spores per larva) and controls. Results showed that specific activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione S-transferase were significantly higher in the guts of the control larvae than in the guts of the A. apis-infected larvae. The metabolomic data revealed that levels of 28 and 52 metabolites were significantly higher and lower, respectively, in the guts of A. apis-infected larvae than in the guts of control larvae. The 5-oxo-ETE level in the infected larvae was two times higher than that in the control larvae. Elevated 5-oxo-ETE levels may act as a potential metabolic biomarker for chalkbrood disease diagnosis, suggesting that A. apis infection induced obvious oxidative stress in the honey bee larvae. The levels of metabolites such as taurine, docosahexaenoic acid, and L-carnitine involved in combating oxidative stress were significantly decreased in the gut of A. apis-infected larvae. Overall, our results suggest that A. apis infection may compromise the ability of infected larvae to cope with oxidative stress, providing new insight into changing patterns of physiological responses to A. apis infection in honey bee larvae by concurrent use of conventional biochemical assays and untargeted metabolomics.

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Transcriptome analysis of the honey bee fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis: implications for host pathogenesis

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/1471-2164-13-285 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 285 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

R Cornman ◽

Anna K Bennett ◽

K Murray ◽

Jay D Evans ◽

Christine G Elsik ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Honey Bee ◽

Transcriptome Analysis ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Ascosphaera Apis

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Co-incubation of dsRNA reduces proportion of viable spores of Ascosphaera apis, a honey bee fungal pathogen

10.1101/852699 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

James P. Tauber ◽

Ralf Einspanier ◽

Jay D. Evans ◽

Dino P. McMahon

Keyword(s):

Rna Interference ◽

Honey Bee ◽

Causative Agent ◽

Genome Analysis ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Genetic Material ◽

Ascosphaera Apis ◽

Double Stranded Rna ◽

The Individual

AbstractThere are viral, fungal, bacterial and trypanosomal pathogens that negatively impact the individual and superorganismal health of the western honey bee. One fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis, affects larvae and causes the disease chalkbrood. A previous genome analysis of As. apis revealed that its genome encodes for RNA interference genes, similar to other fungi and eukaryotes. Here, we examined whether As. apis-targeting double-stranded RNA species could disrupt the germination of As. apis. We observed that when spores were co-incubated with As. apis-targeting dsRNA, fewer spores were activated for germination, suggesting an uptake of exogenous genetic material at the very onset of germination and consequent damage to essential transcripts needed for germination. Overall, these results indicate that the causative agent of chalkbrood disease, As. apis, can be successfully targeted using an RNAi-based strategy.

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