Flower visitation patterns of the coexisting honey bees <i>Apis cerana japonica</i> and <i>Apis mellifera</i> (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Tatsuno, Midzuho; Osawa, Naoya

doi:10.1111/ens.12206

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Indeed, diet has been shown to have an impact on diversity in the gut microbiota in multiple studies, with, for example, a reduction of diversity reported for the human gut microbiota as a consequence of westernized diet [ 57 , 58 ]. As of yet, large-scale systematic studies on the foraging preferences of A. cerana and A. mellifera have not been conducted, but they appear to have largely overlapping foraging ranges in Asia [ 59 , 60 ]. Further studies are therefore needed to determine whether differences in strain-level diversity are related to dietary differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vast Differences in Strain-Level Diversity in the Gut Microbiota of Two Closely Related Honey Bee Species

et al. 2020

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Summary Most bacterial species encompass strains with vastly different gene content. Strain diversity in microbial communities is therefore considered to be of functional importance. Yet little is known about the extent to which related microbial communities differ in diversity at this level and which underlying mechanisms may constrain and maintain strain-level diversity. Here, we used shotgun metagenomics to characterize and compare the gut microbiota of two honey bee species, Apis mellifera and Apis cerana, which diverged about 6 mya. Although the host species are colonized largely by the same bacterial 16S rRNA phylotypes, we find that their communities are host specific when analyzed with genomic resolution. Moreover, despite their similar ecology, A. mellifera displayed a much higher diversity of strains and functional gene content in the microbiota compared to A. cerana, both per colony and per individual bee. In particular, the gene repertoire for polysaccharide degradation was massively expanded in the microbiota of A. mellifera relative to A. cerana . Bee management practices, divergent ecological adaptation, or habitat size may have contributed to the observed differences in microbiota genomic diversity of these key pollinator species. Our results illustrate that the gut microbiota of closely related animal hosts can differ vastly in genomic diversity while displaying similar levels of diversity based on the 16S rRNA gene. Such differences are likely to have consequences for gut microbiota functioning and host-symbiont interactions, highlighting the need for metagenomic studies to understand the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vast Differences in Strain-Level Diversity in the Gut Microbiota of Two Closely Related Honey Bee Species

et al. 2020

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“…, Kim and Smith ), but can make use of a wide range of nectar concentrations (Biesmeijer et al. , Tatsuno and Osawa ). However, Somme et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species‐rich and resource‐abundant environments

et al. 2017

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. 2017.Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species-rich and resource-abundant environments. Ecosphere 8(3):e01758. 10. 1002/ecs2.1758 Abstract. Numerous studies revealed a positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, suggesting that biodiverse environments may not only enhance ecosystem processes, but also benefit individual ecosystem members by, for example, providing a higher diversity of resources. Whether and how the number of available resources affects resource collection and subsequently consumers (e.g., through impacting functions associated with resources) have, however, been little investigated, although a better understanding of this relationship may help explain why the abundance and richness of many animal species typically decline with decreasing plant (resource) diversity. Using a social bee species as model (Tetragonula carbonaria), we investigated how plant species richness-recorded for study sites located in different habitats-and associated resource abundance affected the diversity and functionality (here defined as nutritional content and antimicrobial activity) of resources (i.e., pollen, nectar, and resin) collected by a generalist herbivorous consumer. The diversity of both pollen and resin collected strongly increased with increasing plant/tree species richness, while resource abundance was only positively correlated with resin diversity. These findings suggest that bees maximize resource diversity intake in (resource) diverse habitats. Collecting more diverse resources did, however, not increase their functionality, which appeared to be primarily driven by the surrounding (plant) source community in our study. In generalist herbivores, maximizing resource diversity intake may therefore primarily secure collection of sufficient amounts of resources across the entire foraging season, but it also ensures that the allocated resources meet all functional needs. Decreasing available resource diversity may thus impact consumers primarily by reduced resource abundance, but also by reduced resource functionality, particularly when resources of high functionality (e.g., from specific plant species) become scarce.

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“…Indeed, diet has been shown to have an impact on diversity in the gut microbiota in multiple studies, with for example a reduction of diversity reported for the human gut microbiota as a consequence of westernized diet [43, 44]. As of yet, large-scale systematic studies on the foraging preferences of A. cerana and A. mellifera have not been conducted, but they appear to have largely overlapping foraging ranges in Asia [45, 46]. Further studies are therefore needed to determine whether differences in strain-level diversity are related to dietary differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vast differences in strain-level diversity in the gut microbiota of two closely related honey bee species

Ellegaard¹,

Suenami

Miyazaki

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Most bacterial species encompass strains with vastly different gene content. Strain diversity in microbial communities is therefore considered to be of functional importance. Yet, little is known about the extent to which related microbial communities differ in diversity at this level and which underlying mechanisms may constrain and maintain strain-level diversity. Here, we used shotgun metagenomics to characterize and compare the gut microbiota of two honey bee species, Apis mellifera and Apis cerana, which have diverged about 6 mio years ago. While both host species are colonized by largely overlapping bacterial 16S rRNA phylotypes, we find that their communities are highly host-specific when analyzed with genomic resolution. Despite their similar ecology, A. mellifera displayed a much higher extent of strain-level diversity and functional gene content in the microbiota than A. cerana, per colony and per individual bee. In particular, the gene repertoire for polysaccharide degradation was massively expanded in the microbiota of A. mellifera relative to A. cerana. Bee management practices, divergent ecological adaptation, or habitat size may have contributed to the observed differences in microbiota composition of these two key pollinator species. Our results illustrate that the gut microbiota of closely related animal hosts can differ vastly in genomic diversity despite sharing similar levels of diversity at the 16S rRNA gene. This is likely to have consequences for gut microbiota functioning and host-symbiont interactions, highlighting the need for metagenomic studies to understand the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.

show abstract

Flower visitation patterns of the coexisting honey bees Apis cerana japonica and Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Cited by 11 publications

References 57 publications

Vast Differences in Strain-Level Diversity in the Gut Microbiota of Two Closely Related Honey Bee Species

Vast Differences in Strain-Level Diversity in the Gut Microbiota of Two Closely Related Honey Bee Species

Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species‐rich and resource‐abundant environments

Vast differences in strain-level diversity in the gut microbiota of two closely related honey bee species

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