Lactobacillus apis sp. nov., from the stomach of honeybees (Apis mellifera), having an in vitro inhibitory effect on the causative agents of American and European foulbrood

Abstract

Lactobacillus apis sp. nov., from the stomach of honeybees (Apis mellifera), having an in vitro inhibitory effect on the causative agents of American and European foulbrood At the present time, the bacterial genus Lactobacillus comprises more than 100 species and subspecies (Hammes & Hertel, 2009) and represents a large group of Grampositive bacteria within the phylum Firmicutes. Lactobacilli are well known as the main representatives of the lactic acid bacteria that occur in various carbohydrate-rich environments such as plant-derived materials, products of the dairy industry, the reproductive tract of women and the digestive tracts of mammals and insects (Hammes & Hertel, 2009;Forsgren et al., 2010). Lactobacilli are important members of healthy gastrointestinal tracts of animals, and some of them are used frequently as probiotics because of their beneficial influences on mammalian and human health (Zubillaga et al., 2001).It is supposed that lactobacilli, other lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria have a beneficial effect on honeybee health. For this reason, attempts to describe the occurrence of these bacteria in the digestive tract of these important pollinators have increased in recent years (Olofsson & Vásquez, 2008). Novel species of lactobacilli have been detected from the digestive tract of Apis mellifera and ApisThe GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA, atpA, hsp60, pheS, rpoA and tuf gene sequences of strain R4B T are KF386017, JQ363701, JQ363676, JQ363685, JQ363694 and JQ363711, respectively. The accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain R4C is KF386018.

Microorganisms in Honey

“…Several microorganisms present in the honey and in the gut of honeybees have antagonistic effects on honeybees and human pathogens, especially of Bacillus genus [123,134], lactic acid bacteria as Lactobacillus [71,121,124,[130][131][132]135], Enterococcus [130], Bifidobacteria [116,132,[136][137][138], and Acetobacteraceae [117,121,133]. These same microorganisms can be accessed for other purposes, such as its potential as fermenters [116,130,133] or probiotics [116].…”

Bartonella apis sp. nov., a honey bee gut symbiont of the class Alphaproteobacteria

“…Genome sequencing projects have provided the first insights into the functional capabilities of the bee gut bacteria (Ellegaard et al, 2015;Engel et al, 2012;Kwong et al, 2014a, b). Furthermore, cultures of most community members have been established and species names proposed, such as Snodgrassella alvi (Betaproteobacteria), Gilliamella apicola and Frischella perrara (Gammaproteobacteria), Bifidobacterium asteroides (Actinobacteria) and Lactobacillus apis and Lactobacillus mellis (Firmicutes) (Engel et al, 2013;Killer et al, 2014;Olofsson et al, 2014). However, species descriptions of the two alphaproteobacteria are still lacking.…”

Early gut colonizers shape parasite susceptibility and microbiota composition in honey bee workers

“…Eight bacterial symbionts typify the core adult honey bee gut microbiota, including two abundant Proteobacteria, Snodgrassella alvi (Betaproteobacteria) and Gilliamella apicola (Gammaproteobacteria), as well as two clusters of Firmicutes within the genus Lactobacillus (26)(27)(28)(29). Functional data from some Lactobacillus species (30,31) and from the alphaproteobacterium Parasaccharibacter apium (32,33) support beneficial roles to larval survival and parasite resistance. However, data from a strain of Frischella perrara (Gammaproteobacteria) is associated with melanization in the bee gut epithelium (34), a response generally associated with host defense against potential pathogens.…”