Genomics of the honey bee microbiome

Abstract

The guts of honey bee workers contain a distinctive community of bacterial species. They are microaerophilic or anaerobic, and were not clearly deliniated by earlier studies relying on laboratory culture of isolates under atmospheric oxygen levels. Recently, a more complete picture of the potential metabolism and functions of these bacteria has been possible, using genomic approaches based on metagenomic samples, as well as cultured isolates. Of these, most are host-restricted and are generally absent outside adult guts. These species include both Gram negative groups, such as Gilliamella apicola and Snodgrassella alvi, and Gram positive groups such as certain Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species. These gut bacterial species appear to have undergone long term coevolution with honey bee and, in some cases, bumble bee hosts. Prediction of gene functions from genome sequences suggests roles in nutrition, digestion, and potentially in defense against pathogens. In particular, genes for sugar utilization and carbohydrate breakdown are enriched in G. apicola and the Lactobacillus species.

Engineering Microbiomes to Improve Plant and Animal Health

“…Core microbiome: set of microbial taxa that are consistently associated with a host taxon. For example, although many bacterial types can be found in the bee gut, a core microbiome of only eight bacterial types is consistently present in bee guts [62,79]. Direct versus indirect artificial selection: direct artificial selection describes a selection regime where the target of selection (phenotypic trait) is measured directly to select individuals for propagation to the next generation.…”

“…Consequently, host-mediated engineering of microbiomes may be more successful in undomesticated than in domesticated hosts when selecting on such environmentally acquired microbiomes. In contrast, some domesticated animals such as the honeybee have gut microbes with both vertically transmitted and environmentally acquired components [62], and both wild and domesticated honeybees may therefore be suitable models for microbiome engineering of the vertically transmitted components.…”

“…Vertical transmission can occur via a diversity of pathways, including transovarial transmission, or via behavioral mechanisms such as a mother coating an egg casing with bacteria which the offspring then acquires upon hatching [49,54]. Likewise, components of the human microbiome are inherited from a mother during or even before birth [53,60], and the honeybee gut microbiome of eight bacterial species[ 1 _ T D $ D I F F ] clusters is inherited by newborn bees from sibling workers or the hive environment [61,62]. Importantly, vertical transmission of microbiomes can occur with different degrees of fidelity, measured as the likelihood with which an individual microbial genotype or whole community is passed successfully from mother to offspring.…”

Effects of Lactobacillus Johnsonii AJ5 Metabolites on Nutrition, Nosema Ceranae Development and Performance of Apis Mellifera L.

“…These are involved in many aspects of host life, physiology and evolution, including nutrition, reproduction, immune homeostasis, defence and speciation (Crotti et al, 2012). Eight bacterial species clusters dominate A. mellifera workers' gut, comprising over 95% of the whole community (Moran, 2015). Even if the species-level diversity is low, the strain diversity depicts more metabolic functions that benefit hosts .…”

“…(Maggi et al, 2013) were administered to bees. Over the last years, honey bee researchers have been working hard to analyze the composition and function of honey bee microbiota (Engel et al, 2012;Mattila et al, 2012;Vásquez et al, 2012;Alberoni et al, 2016) to use it as an alternative to deal with nutritional and immunological problems (Crotti et al, 2012;Moran, 2015). Furthermore, much effort has been focused on developing natural formulations to improve colony performance and consequently mitigate the negative effects of major diseases.…”