Abstract
Bumble bees are important pollinators in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Their social colonies are founded by individual queens, which, as the predominant reproductive females of colonies, contribute to colony function through worker production and fitness through male and new queen production. Therefore, queen health is paramount, but even though there has been an increasing emphasis on the role of gut microbiota for animal health, there is limited information on the gut microbial dynamics of bumble bee queens. Employing 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR, we investigate how the adult life stage and physiological state influence a queen's gut bacterial community diversity and composition in unmated, mated, and ovipositing queens of Bombus lantschouensis We found significant shifts in total gut microbe abundance and microbiota composition across queen states. There are specific compositional signatures associated with different stages, with unmated and ovipositing queens showing the greatest similarity in composition and mated queens being distinct. The bacterial genera Gilliamella, Snodgrassella, and Lactobacillus were relatively dominant in unmated and ovipositing queens, with Bifidobacterium dominant in ovipositing queens only. Bacillus, Lactococcus, and Pseudomonas increased following queen mating. Intriguingly, however, further analysis of unmated queens matching the mated queens in age showed that changes are independent of the act of mating. Our study is the first to explore the gut microbiome of bumble bee queens across key life stages from adult eclosion to egg laying and provides useful information for future studies of the function of gut bacteria in queen development and colony performance.IMPORTANCE Bumble bee queens undergo a number of biological changes as they transition through adult emergence, mating, overwintering, foraging, and colony initiation including egg laying. Therefore, they represent an important system to understand the link between physiological, behavioral, and environmental changes and host-associated microbiota. It is plausible that the bumble bee queen gut bacteria play a role in shaping the ability of the queen to survive environmental extremes and reproduce, due to long-established coevolutionary relationships between the host and microbiome members.
Highlights
Bumble bees are important pollinators in natural and agricultural ecosystems
A total of 2,107,642 sequences were obtained in 86 samples including unmated queens (UQs; n ϭ 30), mated queens (MQs; n ϭ 27), and ovipositing queens (OQs; n ϭ 29), which range from 9,915 to 44,451 (24,507 Ϯ 961, mean Ϯ standard error [SE]) per sample
To better understand the differences in the microbiome between the three queen stages, operational taxonomic units (OTUs) sequences were blasted against the annotated SILVA 16S rRNA reference database
Summary
Bumble bees are important pollinators in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Their social colonies are founded by individual queens, which, as the predominant reproductive females of colonies, contribute to colony function through worker production and fitness through male and new queen production. IMPORTANCE Bumble bee queens undergo a number of biological changes as they transition through adult emergence, mating, overwintering, foraging, and colony initiation including egg laying. They represent an important system to understand the link between physiological, behavioral, and environmental changes and host-associated microbiota. Symbiotic bacteria play important roles in physiology, behavior, and fitness of their animal hosts, including insects [1, 2] They can supply the necessary nutrition for their host [3, 4], improve the host’s development and fecundity [5, 6], modulate their metabolism [7], and induce insects’ aggregations [8, 9] as well as determine kin recognition and mate choice [10,11,12]. A number of beneficial interactions among these microbes and the honey and bumble bees have been reported, including increased metabolic functionality, protection from invading pathogens through facilitation of the immune response [23, 24], or exclusionary effects [25,26,27]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
