Flagella‐Mediated Biofilm Formation and 3D Swarming Drive Virulence in the Honey Bee Pathogen Paenibacillus larvae
- 1Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bee Diseases Institute for Bee Research Hohen Neuendorf Germany
- 2Department of Veterinary Medicine Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
Abstract
American foulbrood, a devastating bacterial disease affecting honey bee larvae, represents a major threat to apiculture worldwide. Its etiological agent, the Gram‐positive, endospore‐forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae , has therefore been extensively studied to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenicity and to identify key virulence determinants. In the present study, we identified the peritrichous flagella of P. larvae as a novel and important virulence factor of the genotype ERIC II. A flagella‐deficient mutant was generated and shown to exhibit multiple defects in vitro associated with biofilm formation, including altered biofilm architecture, reduced adhesion, impaired floating capacity and loss of swarming motility. Survival assays using honey bee larvae, complemented by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses of infected larvae, further demonstrated the crucial contribution of flagella to virulence in vivo by mediating biofilm formation on the larval midgut epithelium as well as three‐dimensional swarming during epithelial invasion.
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BibTeX
@article{gobel2026flagellamediated,
title = {{Flagella‐Mediated Biofilm Formation and 3D Swarming Drive Virulence in the Honey Bee Pathogen Paenibacillus larvae}},
author = {Josefine Göbel and Anne Fünfhaus and Elke Genersch},
journal = {Environmental Microbiology},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1111/1462-2920.70477},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.70477},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Flagella‐Mediated Biofilm Formation and 3D Swarming Drive Virulence in the Honey Bee Pathogen Paenibacillus larvae
AU - Josefine Göbel
AU - Anne Fünfhaus
AU - Elke Genersch
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
JO - Environmental Microbiology
DO - 10.1111/1462-2920.70477
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.70477
AB - American foulbrood, a devastating bacterial disease affecting honey bee larvae, represents a major threat to apiculture worldwide. Its etiological agent, the Gram‐positive, endospore‐forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae , has therefore been extensively studied to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenicity and to identify key virulence determinants. In the present study, we identified the peritrichous flagella of P. larvae as a novel and important virulence factor of the genotype ERIC II. A flagella‐deficient mutant was generated and shown to exhibit multiple defects in vitro associated with biofilm formation, including altered biofilm architecture, reduced adhesion, impaired floating capacity and loss of swarming motility. Survival assays using honey bee larvae, complemented by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses of infected larvae, further demonstrated the crucial contribution of flagella to virulence in vivo by mediating biofilm formation on the larval midgut epithelium as well as three‐dimensional swarming during epithelial invasion.
SN - 1462-2912
SN - 1462-2920
ER -