Compartmentalization of bacterial and fungal microbiomes in the gut of adult honeybees

Abstract

The core gut microbiome of adult honeybee comprises a set of recurring bacterial phylotypes, accompanied by lineage-specific, variable, and less abundant environmental bacterial phylotypes. Several mutual interactions and functional services to the host, including the support provided for growth, hormonal signaling, and behavior, are attributed to the core and lineage-specific taxa. By contrast, the diversity and distribution of the minor environmental phylotypes and fungal members in the gut remain overlooked. In the present study, we hypothesized that the microbial components of forager honeybees (i.e., core bacteria, minor environmental phylotypes, and fungal members) are compartmentalized along the gut portions. The diversity and distribution of such three microbial components were investigated in the context of the physico-chemical conditions of different gut compartments. We observed that changes in the distribution and abundance of microbial components in the gut are consistently compartment-specific for all the three microbial components, indicating that the ecological and physiological interactions among the host and microbiome vary with changing physico-chemical and metabolic conditions of the gut.

Social Interaction is Unnecessary for Hindgut Microbiome Transmission in Honey Bees: the Effect of Diet and Social Exposure on Tissue-Specific Microbiome Assembly

“…The collection of recent results supports the existence of a rare fungal community that populates the gut of honey bee workers [46,47,69]. In agreement with another recent study [69] we found a strong relationship between bacterial and fungal density throughout the alimentary tract in the colony control, perhaps a reflection of broad changes in gut pH and oxygen (Fig.…”

“…Under normal conditions, or when colonized by a "conventional" microbiota, the central region of the ileum becomes anoxic whereas oxygen remains detectable in the center and periphery of "germ free" bee ileums fed sterile pollen [4]. Data on foragers suggests this relationship may be variable or change with age or diet [69]. Strongly allied with the host epithelium, S. alvi contributes to biofilm life, including SCFA and siderophore production [38,70].…”

“…1 and 2). While these patterns suggest a shift in gut physiology [4,69], more detailed experiments are required to test this hypothesis. Results from foragers indicate variable oxygen availability in the rectum [69], but core bacterial genome function suggests resilience to these fluctuations [80].…”

The Gut Microbiota Protects Bees from Invasion by a Bacterial Pathogen

“…S2 in the supplemental material), suggesting that the particular combination of species and strains determines the extent of protection, as observed in studies with bumble bees ( 45 – 47 ). Bee guts can also contain yeasts, which are acquired from environmental sources and vary seasonally and between hives ( 48 , 49 ). These fungi may affect host immune function ( 50 ).…”

Morphological characteristics and abundance of prokaryotes associated with gills in mangrove brachyuran crabs living along a tidal gradient

“…The total DNA extraction of crab gills was performed using 50 mg of gill tissue and a DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) following the manufacturer’s protocol. Absolute abundances of the number of copies of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene were determined using the Eub338/Eub518 primer-set (specific for eubacteria Domain) as described by Frierer and colleagues [ 39 ] and Callegari and colleagues [ 40 ]. To obtain the standard gene of interest, the fragment was amplified from environmental DNA (size ± 180 bp).…”