Abstract
The honey bee, Apis mellifera, pollinates a wide variety of essential crops in numerous ecosystems around the world but faces many modern challenges. Among these, the microsporidian pathogen Nosema ceranae is one of the primary detriments to honey bee health. Nosema infects the honey bee gut, which harbors a highly specific, coevolved microbiota heavily involved in bee immune function and nutrition. Here, we extend previous work investigating interactions between the honey bee gut microbiome and N. ceranae by studying experimentally infected bees that were returned to their colonies and sampled 5, 10, and 21 days post-infection. We measured Nosema load with quantitative PCR and characterized microbiota with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We found significant colony level variation in infection levels, and subtle differences between the microbiota of colonies with high infection levels versus those with low infection levels. Two exact sequence variants of Gilliamella, a core gut symbiont that has previously been associated with gut dysbiosis, were significantly more abundant in bees from colonies with high Nosema loads versus those with low Nosema loads. These bacteria deserve further study to determine if they facilitate more intense infection by Nosema ceranae.
Highlights
Flower-visiting pollinators, primarily bees and other insects[1], are estimated to be responsible for approximately 35% of global food production directly consumed by humans[2,3]
Surveys of A. mellifera gut microbes from four different continents have revealed that honey bee guts harbor representatives of 5–8 bacterial phylotypes involved in host nutrition, toxicity, immune function, and possibly pathogen resistance[22,23,24,25]
We aimed to determine if specific bacteria correlated with N. ceranae infection are targetable predictive markers of colony health for future studies
Summary
Flower-visiting pollinators, primarily bees (such as Apis mellifera) and other insects[1], are estimated to be responsible for approximately 35% of global food production directly consumed by humans[2,3]. Surveys of A. mellifera gut microbes from four different continents have revealed that honey bee guts harbor representatives of 5–8 bacterial phylotypes involved in host nutrition, toxicity, immune function, and possibly pathogen resistance[22,23,24,25]. This microbiota is highly conserved despite distinct differences in environment, geography, and bee sub-species. We aim to better understand whether and how the microbiota might interact with Nosema to add to the long-term goal of increasing honey bee health. We aimed to determine if specific bacteria correlated with N. ceranae infection are targetable predictive markers of colony health for future studies
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