N. ceranae experiment protocols

Extraction of N. ceranae Spores from Bees

Purification of N. ceranae Spores

N. ceranae Genomic DNA Extraction

Germination of N. ceranae Spores

Coding Sequence Testing

We define the germination degree as follows:

1 point:A spore begins its budding reproduction.

2 points:A new spore is ccompletely germinanated from the old one.

3 points:A cluster of duplicated spores is formed.

4 points:A Spore extrude a polar filament.

Novel protocol for differentiation of N. apis and N. ceranae

Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are two genetically related microsporidian pathogens of the western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera). Both of them have similar life cycles, shorten the adult bee’s lifespan and impact honey production, but only N. ceranae is suspected to induce the CCD problem. Also, N. apis is well controlled by the use of fumagillin while N. ceranae escapes the antimicrobial agent. (http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1003185) In recent years, N. ceranae, originally found in the Asian honey bee (Apis cerana), appears to have become more dominant than N. apis in the western honey bees. The distinction between N. apis and N. ceranae is thus important and still worth further research. Light microscopy method based on morphology revealed that spores of N. ceranae were oval or rod shaped like a rice, and were slightly thinner than N. apis.