Nosema or Vairimorpha: Genomic/proteomic support to a complex socio-economic issue rooted in taxonomic change
Microsporidia are disease-causing organisms that can infect invertebrate species. In apiculture, two microsporidians of importance are Vairimorpha (=Nosema) ceranae and Vairimorpha (=Nosema) apis. The taxonomy surrounding the genus assignment of these species has been heavily debated, due to molecular systematic and socio-economic reasons. We provide an update to this debate by developing a 508-gene concatenated protein phylogeny, and a 277-gene concatenated nucleotide phylogeny, to show that these parasites show strong phylogenetic positioning with the Vairimorpha genus and its type species Vairimorpha necatrix. Despite this assignment, we suggest that the terms 'nosema-disease', 'nosemosis' and 'nosematosis' should still be viable for use within apiculture, and be named after the family Nosematidae in which V. ceranae and V. apis sit, instead of the previous genus assignment: Nosema.
Authors
- Yuri S. Tokarev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0524-0778)
- Edouard Bessette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7005-7182)
- Jonathan W. Snow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5677-9226)
- Ben Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1123-2176)
- James J. Becnel
- Cheyenne E. Stratton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4405-812X)
- Sam Edwards (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2796-8527)
- Jamie Bojko
- Leellen F. Solter
- Wei‐Fone Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1698-0659)
- Amjad Khalaf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1297-1181)
- Tian Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4362-0130)
- Jing Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2696-5180)
- Yan Ping Chen
- Nataša Katanić
Institutions
- Missouri Department of Conservation (US)
- United States Department of Agriculture (US)
- Southwest University (CN)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Charles University (CZ)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- University of Florida (US)
- All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection (RU)
- Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (US)
- Institute of Apiculture Research (CN)
- University of Virginia's College at Wise (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Teesside University (GB)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Barnard College (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Invertebrate Pathology
- Published
- 2025-06-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2025.108376
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Mosquito-borne diseases and control
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.39
Funders
- Teesside University
- Royal Society