Updated genome assembly and annotation of Paenibacillus larvae, the agent of American foulbrood disease of honey bees

Abstract

As scientists continue to pursue various 'omics-based research, there is a need for high quality data for the most fundamental 'omics of all: genomics. The bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is the causative agent of the honey bee disease American foulbrood. If untreated, it can lead to the demise of an entire hive; the highly social nature of bees also leads to easy disease spread, between both individuals and colonies. Biologists have studied this organism since the early 1900s, and a century later, the molecular mechanism of infection remains elusive. Transcriptomics and proteomics, because of their ability to analyze multiple genes and proteins in a high-throughput manner, may be very helpful to its study. However, the power of these methodologies is severely limited without a complete genome; we undertake to address that deficiency here.