Bartonella apis
Bartonella apis is a bacterium from the genus Bartonella. Bartonella apis was first isolated from the gut of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) in 2015 by Swiss researchers at the University of Lausanne. To date, it has been found only as a gut symbiont of honey bees, including the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera), and the Eastern or Asiatic honey bee (Apis cerana). Phylogeny and characteristics Bartonella apis is a member of the order Rhizobiales and class Alphaproteobacteria. Phylogenetically, it places in the genus Bartonella through 16s rRNA genetic homology, with its nearest relative being Bartonella tamiae, a human pathogen isolated initially from three patients in Thailand and an uncultured Bartonella species isolated from an ant. Like other Bartonellae, B. apis is a small (1.2 to 1.8 um), gram negative rod shaped organism. Transmission electron microscopy revealed hair like structures on the cellular envelope as well as suspected flagellae, which are also seen in other Bartonella species. Other commonly known Bartonellae include human pathogens, such as the facultatively intracellular Bartonella henselae, causative agent of cat scratch disease; Bartonella quintana, causative agent of "trench fever"; and Bartonella bacilliformis, causative agent of carrion's disease. Pathogenic Bartonellae are transmitted by biting arthropod vector,