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Relationship between honeybee nutrition and their microbial communities

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Abstract

The microbiota and the functional genes actively involved in the process of breakdown and utilization of pollen grains in beebread and bee guts are not yet understood. The aim of this work was to assess the diversity and community structure of bacteria and archaea in Africanized honeybee guts and beebread as well as to predict the genes involved in the microbial bioprocessing of pollen using state of the art ‘post-light’ based sequencing technology. A total of 11 bacterial phyla were found within bee guts and 10 bacterial phyla were found within beebread. Although the phylum level comparison shows most phyla in common, a deeper phylogenetic analysis showed greater variation of taxonomic composition. The families Enterobacteriaceae, Ricketsiaceae, Spiroplasmataceae and Bacillaceae, were the main groups responsible for the specificity of the bee gut while the main families responsible for the specificity of the beebread were Neisseriaceae, Flavobacteriaceae, Acetobacteraceae and Lactobacillaceae. In terms of microbial community structure, the analysis showed that the communities from the two environments were quite different from each other with only 7 % of species-level taxa shared between bee gut and beebread. The results indicated the presence of a highly specialized and well-adapted microbiota within each bee gut and beebread. The beebread community included a greater relative abundance of genes related to amino acid, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism, suggesting that pollen biodegradation predominantly occurs in the beebread. These results suggests a complex and important relationship between honeybee nutrition and their microbial communities.

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Acknowledgments

The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq—Brazil), the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES—Brazil), the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS—Brazil) and Programa de Apoio aos Polos Tecnológicos; Process 474-2500/13-9 supported this work. LFW Roesch, JL Franco and FAO Camargo received research fellowships from the CNPq. MA Saraiva received research fellowships from Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS—Brazil). Special thanks are due to the Cooperativa Apícola do Pampa Gaúcho and Mr. Aldo Machado dos Santos for granting access to their apiaries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal do PAMPA, Campus São Gabriel, Avenida Antônio Trilha, 1847, São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul, 97300-000, Brazil

    Miriane Acosta Saraiva, Ana Paula Pegoraro Zemolin, Jeferson Luis Franco, Juliano Tomazzoni Boldo, Valdir Marcos Stefenon & Luiz Fernando Wurdig Roesch

  2. Microbiology and Cell Science Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-0700, USA

    Eric W. Triplett

  3. Departamento de Solos, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 7712, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91540-000, Brazil

    Flávio Anastácio de Oliveira Camargo

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  1. Miriane Acosta Saraiva
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  2. Ana Paula Pegoraro Zemolin
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  3. Jeferson Luis Franco
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  8. Luiz Fernando Wurdig Roesch
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Correspondence to Luiz Fernando Wurdig Roesch.

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Saraiva, M.A., Zemolin, A.P.P., Franco, J.L. et al. Relationship between honeybee nutrition and their microbial communities. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 107, 921–933 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-015-0384-8

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