Division of labor in honey bee gut microbiota for plant polysaccharide digestion

Zheng, Hao; Perreau, Julie; Powell, J. Elijah; Han, Benfeng; Zhang, Zijing; Kwong, Waldan K.; Tringe, Susannah G.; Moran, Nancy A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1916224116

Cited by 209 publications

(245 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…3A and table S5). Furthermore, G. apicola plays an important role in sugar metabolism and plant polysaccharide digestion in the bee gut (17,18)-processes that result in the production of acetyl coenzyme A and short-chain fatty acids, which may serve as precursors to CHCs (10,19). After inoculation with these two bacteria, we found that, in addition to developing different gut microbial communities ( show less growth when plated than those treated with a control sugar solution (B).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 87%

The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies

et al. 2020

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In the honey bee, genetically related colony members innately develop colony-specific cuticular hydrocarbon profiles, which serve as pheromonal nestmate recognition cues. Yet, despite high intracolony relatedness, the innate development of colony-specific chemical signatures by individual colony members is largely determined by the colony environment, rather than solely relying on genetic variants shared by nestmates. Therefore, it is puzzling how a nongenic factor could drive the innate development of a quantitative trait that is shared by members of the same colony. Here, we provide one solution to this conundrum by showing that nestmate recognition cues in honey bees are defined, at least in part, by shared characteristics of the gut microbiome across individual colony members. These results illustrate the importance of host-microbiome interactions as a source of variation in animal behavioral traits.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 87%

The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies

et al. 2020

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“…kunkeei ( Figure 6 ) were able to utilize not only the three most common nectar sugars (glucose, fructose, and sucrose) but also arabinose, galactose, mannose and lactose, described as toxic to honey bees [ 56 , 57 ]. Already other authors had reported that the honey bee gut microbiome may facilitate the metabolism of specific toxic sugars [ 24 , 58 , 59 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter- and Intra-Species Diversity of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Apis mellifera ligustica Colonies

et al. 2020

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Lactic acid bacteria could positively affect the health of honey bees, including nutritional supplementation, immune system development and pathogen colonization resistance. Based on these considerations the present study evaluated predominant Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) species from beebread as well as from the social stomach and midgut of Apis mellifera ligustica honey bee foragers. In detail, for each compartment, the diversity in species and biotypes was ascertained through multiple culture-dependent approaches, consisting of Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE), 16S rRNA gene sequencing and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RAPD-PCR). The study of a lactic acid bacteria community, performed with PCR-DGGE and sequence analysis targeting the V1–V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene (rDNA), highlighted the presence of a few species, including Apilactobacillus kunkeei, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Fructobacillus fructosus, Levilactobacillus brevis and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis. Depending on the different compartments, diverse levels of biodiversity in species were found. Particularly, a very low inter-species biodiversity was detected in the midgut that was prevalently dominated by the presence of Apilactobacillus kunkeei. On the other hand, the beebread was characterized by a reasonable biodiversity showing the presence of five species and the predominance of Apilactobacillus kunkeei, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Fructobacillus fructosus. The RAPD-PCR analysis performed on the three predominant species allowed the differentiation into several biotypes for each species. Moreover, a relationship between biotypes and compartments has been detected and each biotype was able to express a specific biochemical profile. The biotypes that populated the social stomach and midgut were able to metabolize sugars considered toxic for bees while those isolated from beebread could contribute to release useful compounds with functional properties. Based on this knowledge, new biotechnological approaches could be developed to improve the health of honey bees and the quality of bee products.

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“…A theoretical model predicts that a stable coexistence can emerge in nested interaction networks if both, hosts and phages, have differential life history traits (2). Indeed, B. asteroides strains have been shown to occupy distinct metabolic niches in the bee gut (68) and carry vastly different gene content (49), while the tested phage isolates vary in their genome size, lifestyle, phylogeny, and host range. Therefore, the observed nested interaction network in combination with the distinct viral and bacterial ecology seems to be sufficient to explain the coexistence between diverse viruses and host strains in the bee gut.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honey bees harbor a diverse gut virome engaging in nested strain-level interactions with the microbiota

Bonilla-Rosso

Steiner

Wichmann

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The honey bee gut microbiota influences bee health and has become an important model to study the ecology and evolution of microbiota–host interactions. Yet, little is known about the phage community associated with the bee gut, despite its potential to modulate bacterial diversity or to govern important symbiotic functions. Here we analyzed two metagenomes derived from virus-like particles, analyzed the prevalence of the identified phages across 73 bacterial metagenomes from individual bees, and tested the host range of isolated phages. Our results show that the honey bee gut virome is composed of at least 118 distinct clusters corresponding to both temperate and lytic phages and representing novel genera with a large repertoire of unknown gene functions. We find that the phage community is prevalent in honey bees across space and time and targets the core members of the bee gut microbiota. The large number and high genetic diversity of the viral clusters seems to mirror the high extent of strain-level diversity in the bee gut microbiota. We isolated eight lytic phages that target the core microbiota member Bifidobacterium asteroides, but that exhibited different host ranges at the strain level, resulting in a nested interaction network of coexisting phages and bacterial strains. Collectively, our results show that the honey bee gut virome consists of a complex and diverse phage community that likely plays an important role in regulating strain-level diversity in the bee gut and that holds promise as an experimental model to study bacteria–phage dynamics in natural microbial communities.

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Division of labor in honey bee gut microbiota for plant polysaccharide digestion

Cited by 209 publications

References 68 publications

The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies

The gut microbiome defines social group membership in honey bee colonies

Inter- and Intra-Species Diversity of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Apis mellifera ligustica Colonies

Honey bees harbor a diverse gut virome engaging in nested strain-level interactions with the microbiota

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