Genomic analyses of the microsporidian Nosema ceranae, an emergent pathogen of honey bees

Cornman, R. S., Chen, Y. P., Schatz, M. C., Street, C., Zhao, Y., Desany, B., Egholm, M., Hutchison, S., Pettis, J. S., Lipkin, W. I., Evans, J. D. (2009) Genomic analyses of the microsporidian Nosema ceranae, an emergent pathogen of honey bees. PLoS Pathogens, 5 (6). ISSN 15537366 (ISSN)

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Abstract

Recent steep declines in honey bee health have severely impacted the beekeeping industry, presenting new risks for agricultural commodities that depend on insect pollination. Honey bee declines could reflect increased pressures from parasites and pathogens. The incidence of the microsporidian pathogen Nosema ceranae has increased significantly in the past decade. Here we present a draft assembly (7.86 MB) of the N. ceranae genome derived from pyrosequence data, including initial gene models and genomic comparisons with other members of this highly derived fungal lineage. N. ceranae has a strongly AT-biased genome (74% A+T) and a diversity of repetitive elements, complicating the assembly. Of 2,614 predicted protein-coding sequences, we conservatively estimate that 1,366 have homologs in the microsporidian Encephalitozoon cuniculi, the most closely related published genome sequence. We identify genes conserved among microsporidia that lack clear homology outside this group, which are of special interest as potential virulence factors in this group of obligate parasites. A substantial fraction of the diminutive N. ceranae proteome consists of novel and transposableelement proteins. For a majority of well-supported gene models, a conserved sense-strand motif can be found within 15 bases upstream of the start codon; a previously uncharacterized version of this motif is also present in E. cuniculi. These comparisons provide insight into the architecture, regulation, and evolution of microsporidian genomes, and will drive investigations into honey bee-Nosema interactions.

Item Type: Paper
Additional Information:
Uncontrolled Keywords: proteome virulence factor article DNA extraction DNA sequence Encephalitozoon cuniculi genetic analysis genetic regulation honeybee nonhuman Nosema Nosema ceranae nucleotide sequence sequence alignment start codon TATA box transposon animal bee biological model codon fungal gene fungal genome fungus spore genetics metabolism microbiology molecular genetics nucleotide repeat pathogenicity regulatory sequence sequence homology statistical analysis Apis mellifera Hexapoda Microsporidia Animals Base Sequence Bees Conserved Sequence Data Interpretation Statistical Genes, Fungal Genome, Fungal Models, Genetic Molecular Sequence Data Regulatory Elements Transcriptional Repetitive Sequences Nucleic Acid Sequence Homology Nucleic Acid Spores, Fungal
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > annotation > sequence annotation
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > Mapping and Rendering > Sequence Rendering
organism description > animal > insect
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Schatz lab
Depositing User: CSHL Librarian
Date: 2009
Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2012 15:23
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2013 19:10
PMCID: PMC2685015
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/25360

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