1Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore641003, Tamil Nadu, India
2Centre for Post Harvest Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore641003, Tamil Nadu, India
*Email: mrsrini@tnau.ac.in (corresponding author)
Online Published on 25 September, 2025.
Chalkbrood Ascosphaera apis is a fungal brood pathogen that exerts considerable biotic stress on honey bees worldwide. Chalkbrood was noticed at Coimbatore in Apis mellifera colonies for the first time. Precise identification of the fungal pathogen and their mating types is crucial to develop effective disease management strategies. Hence, the present study aimed to isolate and identify fungal pathogen morphologically and genomically. Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) analysis was done and confirmed the essential morphological characteristics of the isolated fungus such as spore cysts (51-86 μm in diameter), spore balls (8-15 μm in diameter), and ascospores (1.7-2.6 μm in length). Molecular characterization using internal transcribed sequence (ITS)-PCR of the fungal isolate indicated 99-100% sequence similarity to A. apis. In addition, the multiplex PCR assay was performed and the mating types MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 were successfully detected and named TNAU CBD MAT1 and TNAU CBD MAT2, respectively.
Apis mellifera, Fungal pathogen, Ascosphaera apis, Identification, Morphology, SEM analysis, ITS, Multiplex PCR, Mating types, Spore cysts, Spore balls, Ascospores
