Abstract
Many reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and insects practice some form of hibernation during which their metabolic rate is drastically reduced. This allows them to conserve energy and survive the harsh winter conditions with little or no food. While it can be expected that a reduction in host metabolism has a substantial influence on the gut microbial community, little is known about the effects of hibernation on the composition of the microbial gut community, especially for insects. In this study, we assessed and compared the bacterial gut community composition within the midgut and ileum of indoor-reared queens of Bombus terrestris before and after an artificial hibernation period of 16 weeks. Deep sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicons and clustering of sequence reads into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a similarity threshold of 97% revealed several bacterial taxa that are known to be strongly associated with corbiculate bees. Bacterial community composition after hibernation compared to before hibernation was characterized by higher OTU richness and evenness, with decreased levels of the core bacteria Gilliamella (Proteobacteria, Orbaceae) and Snodgrassella (Proteobacteria, Neisseriaceae), and increased relative abundance of non-core bacteria, including several psychrophilic and psychrotrophic taxa.
Highlights
Microorganisms are found virtually everywhere and provide numerous benefits to the environment and life on Earth [1,2]
High-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing and subsequent bioinformatics analysis yielded a dataset of 698,172 sequences that could be classified into 674 bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (Table S2, Supporting Information)
There was no correlation between sequence depths and diversity variables, indicating that the bacterial communities could be accurately compared at the obtained sequence depths. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis showed similar amounts of 16S rRNA gene copies in the queens before and after hibernation
Summary
Microorganisms are found virtually everywhere and provide numerous benefits to the environment and life on Earth [1,2]. For example, assist in nutrient acquisition, food digestion, and the protection of their host against pathogens [3,4]. They influence host behavior, development, reproduction, and overall health [3,5]. The host provides a nutrient-rich environment that supports the establishment of a microbial community consisting of diverse species acquired through vertical (from mother) or horizontal transmission, and/or from the environment. The exact species composition of these microbial communities is driven by many factors, including host genetics, interactions with the immune system, interactions among members of the microbial community, host diet, and environmental factors such as the pool of external microbes that may invade and stably colonize the insect gut, temperature, nutrient availability, and oxygen level [6].
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