Page 121 - Plant Canada 2024 Proceeding

PLANT CANADA 2024

avium), peach (Prunus persica), and apple (Malus domestica) blooms. Ilarviruses prune dwarf virus
(PDV) and prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV), Secoviridae family members tomato necrotic ringspot
virus, tobacco necrotic ringspot virus, and prunus virus F, and Capillovirus cherry virus A (CVA) were
detected in all time points, while other viruses were detected with more restricted ranges. Pairwise
nucleotide sequence analysis suggests two major groups of PDV and PNRSV CP nucleotide sequences
present at this site, supported by phylogenetic relationships. A wide variety of individual viruses and
nucleotide sequence diversity was identified at this site, demonstrating the benefits of area-wide
monitoring through bee pollination activities and providing new insights into the pollen-associated virome
in tree fruit production ecosystems.

*[O40] POTENTIAL FOR BEES AND POLLEN AS BIOMONITORS OF AGRICULTURAL PATHOGENS
THROUGH A METABARCODING HIGH THROUGHPUT SEQUENCING (HTS) APPROACH. C. M.
Hewapathirana , M.E. Rott , M.M. Guarna , S.F. Pernal , J.S. Griffiths , and G.J. Bilodeau . Canadian
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Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), 3851 Fallowfield Road, Ottawa, ON, K2H 8P9, Canada; Canadian Food
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Inspection Agency (CFIA), 8801 East Saanich Road, North Saanich, BC, V8L 1H3, Canada; Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), 1 Research Road, Beaverlodge, AB, T0H 0C0, Canada; and Agriculture
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and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), 4902 Victoria Avenue North, Vineland Station, ON, L0R 2E0, Canada;
Correspondence to: Minuka.Hewapathirana@inspection.gc.ca

The European honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a vital component of agricultural systems and recent research
suggest it could be used as a tool for biomonitoring. During foraging activities, bees can come into
contact with plant pathogens through their interactions with pollen and fungal spores. This project aims to
evaluate the potential and limitations in using honeybees as a biomonitoring species for pre-screening
and identifying major pathogenic threats to beekeeping and the Canadian agricultural sector. Over 220
samples including - Hive and Forager bees, Pollen and Bee Bread were collected from A. mellifera hives
in experimental tree fruit farms across British Colombia and Ontario. HTS technologies (ION Torrent) are
utilized to sequence barcode regions - Internal Transcriber Spacer 1 (ITS1) region for fungal identification
and 16S ribosomal DNA for bacterial identification for a total of 90 million reads sequenced for ITS1 and
35 million reads for 16S. Bioinformatics workflows including - QIIME and Phyloseq packages were used
to assess read quality and generate taxonomic profiles. The UNITE fungal database classified up to
7,148 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) while the SILVA bacterial database classified up to 986
OTUs. Results present pollen and forager bees to be a rich source for fungal pathogen detection, for
example with the identifications such as Podosphaera leucotricha (Powdery mildew - apples) and
Blummeria gramminis (Powdery mildew- grasses). The Monilinia genus is considered a high-risk
pathogen genus by the CFIA as it contains species that pose a threat to stone fruit and berry plants in
Canada. Through Phyloseq subset analysis several Monilinia species was detected in the sample sets.
Fungal bee pathogens identified in the samples include - Ascophaera apis (Chalkbrood disease) and
Bacterial pathogen - Melissococcus plutonius (European foulbrood disease). Multiple Sequence
Alignment analysis was deployed to validate the initial hits and phylogenetic trees generated consistent
confidence scores, suggesting accurate taxonomic classification through QIIME. Although a number of
high risk plant and bee pathogens were identified using the fungal workflow, the bacterial taxonomic
classification classified most OTUs at the genus level and was limited to resolving bee pathogens. An
alternate sequencing platform such as the Oxford Nanopore system may produce a higher resolution of
the 16S bacterial region or full genome sequencing. These results illustrate the potential and limitations of
using honeybees as a pre-screening tool for the identification of pathogenic threats to beekeeping and the
Canadian agricultural sector.

*[O41] IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PODOSPHAERA APHANIS CAUSING
POWDERY MILDEW ON SALMONBERRY AND THIMBLEBERRY PLANTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA.
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Chidrupa Podile , Rishi R. Burlakoti , Amy Novinscak , Miao Liu , Zamir K. Punja , Davis Iritani , and
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Yoichiro Watanabe . Science and Technology Branch, Agassiz Research and Development Centre,
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Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz, BC V0M 1A0, Canada; Science and Technology Branch,
Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6,
Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada;
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and Science and Technology Branch, Summerland Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and
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Agri-Food Canada, Summerland, BC V0H 1Z0, Canada
Correspondence to: p.chidrupa@gmail.com
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