G C A T T A C G G C A T genes Article Comparative Genomics and Description of Putative Virulence Factors of Melissococcus plutonius, the Causative Agent of European Foulbrood Disease in Honey Bees Marvin Djukic 1, Silvio Erler 2 ID , Andreas Leimbach 1, Daniela Grossar 3,4, Jean-Daniel Charrière 3, Laurent Gauthier 3, Denise Hartken 1, Sascha Dietrich 1, Heiko Nacke 1, Rolf Daniel 1 ID and Anja Poehlein 1,* ID 1 Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology & Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany;
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[email protected] (R.D.) 2 Molecular Ecology, Institute of Biology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Hoher Weg 4, 06099 Halle (Saale), Germany;
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[email protected] (L.G.) 4 Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, UNIL-Sorge, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-551-3933655 Received: 31 July 2018; Accepted: 13 August 2018; Published: 20 August 2018 Abstract: In Europe, approximately 84% of cultivated crop species depend on insect pollinators, mainly bees. Apis mellifera (the Western honey bee) is the most important commercial pollinator worldwide. The Gram-positive bacterium Melissococcus plutonius is the causative agent of European foulbrood (EFB), a global honey bee brood disease.