TY - JOUR A1 - Xing, N. A1 - Höfler, T. A1 - Hearn, C. J. A1 - Nascimento, M. A1 - Camps Paradell, G. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Kunec, D. A1 - Osterrieder, N. A1 - Cheng, H. H. A1 - Trimpert, J. T1 - Fast-forwarding evolution - Accelerated adaptation in a proofreading-deficient hypermutator herpesvirus N2 - Evolution relies on the availability of genetic diversity for fitness-based selection. However, most deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) viruses employ DNA polymerases (Pol) capable of exonucleolytic proofreading to limit mutation rates during DNA replication. The relative genetic stability produced by high-fidelity genome replication can make studying DNA virus adaptation and evolution an intensive endeavor, especially in slowly replicating viruses. Here, we present a proofreading-impaired Pol mutant (Y547S) of Marek’s disease virus that exhibits a hypermutator phenotype while maintaining unimpaired growth in vitro and wild-type (WT)-like pathogenicity in vivo. At the same time, mutation frequencies observed in Y547S virus populations are 2–5-fold higher compared to the parental WT virus. We find that Y547S adapts faster to growth in originally non-permissive cells, evades pressure conferred by antiviral inhibitors more efficiently, and is more easily attenuated by serial passage in cultured cells compared to WT. Our results suggest that hypermutator viruses can serve as a tool to accelerate evolutionary processes and help identify key genetic changes required for adaptation to novel host cells and resistance to antiviral therapy. Similarly, the rapid attenuation achieved through adaptation of hypermutators to growth in cell culture enables identification of genetic changes underlying attenuation and virulence, knowledge that could practically exploited, e.g. in the rational design of vaccines. KW - Polymerase mutant KW - Proofreading deficient KW - Hypermutation KW - Adaption KW - DNA polymerase KW - Marek's Disease Virus PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565631 DO - https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veac099 SN - 2057-1577 VL - 8 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford, UK AN - OPUS4-56563 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - von Laar, C. A1 - Baar, C. A1 - Plarre, Rüdiger A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Genetic relationships of local infestations by Anobium punctatum, Xestobium rufovillosum and their associated predator Korynetes caeruleus from buildings in North-Eastern Germany N2 - Wood-destroying pests such as Anobium punctatum and Xestobium rufovillosum cause damage to art and cultural objects as well as to buildings. Monitoring population dynamics of pest species as well as of their naturally occurring counterparts are an essential part in the development of biological control measures as alternatives to conventional wood protection. Therefore, both the dispersal and homogeneity of pest and beneficial insect populations across multiple sites and buildings were investigated in the present study using DNA barcoding. Specifically, beetles of Anobium punctatum (de Geer 1774) (Coleoptera, Ptinidae), Xestobium rufovillosum (de Geer, 1974) (Coloeptera, Ptinidae), and Korynetes caeruleus (de Geer 1775) (Coleoptera, Cleridae) were collected from buildings at four different sites in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North-Eastern Germany. DNA analysis was performed using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). For A. punctatum, low base pair variability was found in the gene segment studied (4-5 SNPs) within one building (Greven) and between four spatially separated sites. Conversely, in X. rufovillosum, the sequences from two sites studied were homogeneous within a site but differed between locations by nine base pair positions (SNPs). The main result of this study is that the pests A. punctatum and X. rufovillosum showed a higher variability in the investigated gene segment than the natural counterpart K. caeruleus. T2 - IRG52 Webinar on Wood Protection CY - Online meeting DA - 01.11.21 KW - Anobium punctatum KW - Xestobium rufovillosum KW - Korynetes caeruleus KW - DNA barcode PY - 2021 SN - 2000-8953 VL - 21 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - The International Research Group on Wood Protection CY - Stockholm, Sweden AN - OPUS4-54197 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tauber, J. P. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Ryabov, E. V. A1 - Kunat, M. A1 - Ptaszynska, A. A. A1 - Evans, J. D. T1 - Honeybee intestines retain low yeast titers, but no bacterial mutualists, at emergence N2 - Honeybee symbionts, predominantly bacteria, play important roles in honeybee health, nutrition, and pathogen protection, thereby supporting colony health. On the other hand, fungi are often considered indicators of poor bee health, and honeybee microbiome studies generally exclude fungi and yeasts. We hypothesized that yeasts may be an important aspect of early honeybee biology, and if yeasts provide a mutual benefit to their hosts, then honeybees could provide a refuge during metamorphosis to ensure the presence of yeasts at emergence. We surveyed for yeast and fungi during pupal development and metamorphosis in worker bees using fungal-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), next-generation sequencing, and standard microbiological culturing. On the basis of yeast presence in three distinct apiaries and multiple developmental stages, we conclude that yeasts can survive through metamorphosis and in naïve worker bees, albeit at relatively low levels. In comparison, known bacterial mutualists, like Gilliamella and Snodgrassella, were generally not found in pre-eclosed adult bees. Whether yeasts are actively retained as an important part of the bee microbiota or are passively propagating in the colony remains unknown. Our demonstration of the constancy of yeasts throughout development provides a framework to further understand the honeybee microbiota. KW - Fungi KW - Honeybee KW - Microbiota KW - Yeast PY - 2022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/yea.3665 SN - 1097-0061 VL - 39 IS - 1-2 SP - 95 EP - 107 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd. CY - London, UK AN - OPUS4-53892 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tauber, J. P. A1 - Einspanier, R. A1 - Evans, J. D. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Co-incubation of dsRNA reduces proportion of viable spores of Ascosphaera apis , a honey bee fungal pathogen N2 - There 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. KW - DsRNA KW - Honey bee KW - Pathogen KW - Ascosphaera apis KW - RNAi KW - Control PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2020.1754090 VL - 59 IS - 5 SP - 791 EP - 799 AN - OPUS4-52881 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sieksmeyer, T. A1 - He, S. A1 - Esparza Mora, Margy Alejandra A1 - Jiang, S. A1 - Petrasiunaite, V. A1 - Kuropka, B. A1 - Banasiak, Ronald A1 - Julseth, M. J. A1 - Weise, C. A1 - Johnston, P. R. A1 - Rodriguez-Rojas, A. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Eating in a losing cause: Limited benefit of modifed macronutrient consumption following infection in the oriental cockroach Blatta orientalis N2 - Background: Host–pathogen interactions can lead to dramatic changes in host feeding behaviour. One aspect of this includes self-medication, where infected individuals consume substances such as toxins or alter their macronutrient consumption to enhance immune competence. Another widely adopted animal response to infection is illness-induced anorexia, which is thought to assist host immunity directly or by limiting the nutritional resources available to pathogens. Here, we recorded macronutrient preferences of the global pest cockroach, Blatta orientalis to investigate how shifts in host macronutrient dietary preference and quantity of carbohydrate (C) and protein (P) interact with immunity following bacterial infection. Results: We fnd that B. orientalis avoids diets enriched for P under normal conditions, and that high P diets reduce cockroach survival in the long term. However, following bacterial challenge, cockroaches signifcantly reduced their overall nutrient intake, particularly of carbohydrates, and increased the relative ratio of protein (P:C) consumed. Surprisingly, these behavioural shifts had a limited efect on cockroach immunity and survival, with minor changes to immune protein abundance and antimicrobial activity between individuals placed on diferent diets, regardless of infection status. Conclusions: We show that cockroach feeding behaviour can be modulated by a pathogen, resulting in an illness-induced anorexia-like feeding response and a shift from a C-enriched to a more P:C equal diet. However, our results also indicate that such responses do not provide signifcant immune protection in B. orientalis, suggesting that the host’s dietary shift might also result from random rather than directed behaviour. The lack of an apparent beneft of the shift in feeding behaviour highlights a possible reduced importance of diet in immune regulation in these invasive animals, although further investigations employing pathogens with alternative infection strategies are warranted. KW - Animal immune system KW - A key interface KW - Host and symbiont ecology KW - Behavioural mechanisms KW - Biotic environment PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-550022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02007-8 SN - 2730-7182 VL - 22 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer Nature CY - London, UK AN - OPUS4-55002 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shafiey, Hassan A1 - Gogol-Döring, Andreas A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Doublet, Vincent A1 - Disayathanoowat, Terd A1 - Paxton, Robert J. T1 - A new variant of slow bee paralysis virus revealed by transcriptome analysis N2 - Using NGS data from an RNA-seq library, we reveal a novel variant of slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV) in a pooled sample of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera) collected in southwest Germany. We provide its sequence (NCBI Accession No. PP100271) and demonstrate that it is infective for adult honey bees by feeding. KW - SBPV KW - Apis mellifera KW - +ss RNA virus KW - Iflaviridae KW - Transmission KW - NGS PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-620900 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2024.2425912 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Taylor & Francis AN - OPUS4-62090 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shafiey, H. A1 - Gogol-Döring, A. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Doublet, V. A1 - Disayathanoowat, T. A1 - Paxton, R. J. T1 - A new variant of slow bee paralysis virus revealed by transcriptome analysis N2 - Using NGS data from an RNA-seq library, we reveal a novel variant of slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV) in a pooled sample of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera) collected in southwest Germany. We provide its sequence (NCBI Accession No. PP100271) and demonstrate that it is infective for adult honey bees by feeding. KW - SBPV KW - Apis mellifera KW - +ss RNA virus KW - Iflaviridae KW - Transmission PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-645577 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2024.2425912 VL - 64 IS - 1 SP - 56 EP - 59 PB - Taylor & Francis AN - OPUS4-64557 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oberpaul, M. A1 - Zumkeller, C. M. A1 - Culver, T. A1 - Spohn, M. A1 - Mihajlovic, S. A1 - Leis, B. A1 - Glaeser, S. P. A1 - Plarre, Rüdiger A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Hammann, P. A1 - Schäberle, T. F. A1 - Glaeser, J. A1 - Vilcinskas, A. T1 - High-Throughput Cultivation for the Selective Isolation of Acidobacteria From Termite Nests N2 - Microbial communities in the immediate environment of socialized invertebrates can help to suppress pathogens, in part by synthesizing bioactive natural products. Here we characterized the core microbiomes of three termite species (genus Coptotermes) and their nest material to gain more insight into the diversity of termite-associated bacteria. Sampling a healthy termite colony over time implicated a consolidated and highly stable microbiome, pointing toward the fact that beneficial bacterial phyla play a major role in termite fitness. In contrast, there was a significant shift in the composition of the core microbiome in one nest during a fungal infection, affecting the abundance of wellcharacterized Streptomyces species (phylum Actinobacteria) as well as less-studied bacterial phyla such as Acidobacteria. High-throughput cultivation in microplates was implemented to isolate and identify these less-studied bacterial phylogenetic group. Amplicon sequencing confirmed that our method maintained the bacterial diversity of the environmental samples, enabling the isolation of novel Acidobacteriaceae and expanding the list of cultivated species to include two strains that may define new species within the genera Terracidiphilus and Acidobacterium. KW - Termite-associated microbes KW - Termites KW - Coptotermes KW - Core microbiome KW - Natural products discovery KW - Acidobacteria KW - underexplored phyla KW - Social insects PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515283 DO - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.597628 VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 16 AN - OPUS4-51528 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Termite Immunity (a molecular perspective) N2 - In this presentation, an overview of the termite immune system is given. The presentation covers the mechanistic underpinnings of the canonical immune pathways in insects; where there are areas of conservation or divergence in termites, as well as briefly going over some key gaps in knowledge. External immune capabilities are discussed as well as the implications and consequences of sociality for the evolution of collective immune defense systems in termites. T2 - International Termite Course (ITC) 2025 CY - Davie, FL, USA DA - 10.06.2025 KW - Termite KW - Immunity KW - Molecular KW - Evolution PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64745 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Evolutionary genomics of termite sociality N2 - Termite sociality is thought to have evolved around 150 million years ago and is therefore ancient. Reconstructing the transitions that led to the evolution of this group of ecologically dominant insect societies is challenging. We sought to address this by sequencing near-chromosome-quality genomes from the major solitary, subsocial and social lineages of termites and their nearest blattodean relatives. We present findings from a comparative analysis of the sequenced genomes, where we explore the molecular underpinnings of termite sociality, and seek to understand the evolutionary origins of termite castes. At a broader scale, we test the extent to which a two-step process involving an initial expansion of genomic elements in cockroaches followed by extensive genome rearrangements in termites, may have acted as an important mechanism of evolutionary change. We then ask whether specific genomic processes may have facilitated evolutionary novelty, for example, through the analysis of transposon-host gene associations across the social gradient. We also report on findings that combine genomes with brain transcriptomics to explore the mechanistic basis of termite phenotypic plasticity, thereby enabling a first large-scale comparative genomic analysis of the evolutionary origins of termite sociality. T2 - International Congress of Entomology (ICE) 2024 CY - Kyoto, Japan DA - 25.08.2024 KW - Termite KW - Reference genome KW - Genomics PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-61648 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -