Abstract
BackgroundMicrobial acquisition and development of the gut microbiota impact the establishment of a healthy host-microbes symbiosis. Compared with other animals, the eusocial bumblebees and honeybees possess a simple, recurring, and similar set of gut microbiota. However, all bee gut phylotypes have high strain-level diversity. Gut communities of different bee species are composed of host-specific groups of strains. The variable genomic regions among strains of the same species often confer critical functional differences, such as carbon source utilization, essential for the natural selection of specific strains. The annual bumblebee colony founded by solitary queens enables tracking the transmission routes of gut bacteria during development stages.ResultsHere, we first showed the changes in the microbiome of individual bumblebees across their holometabolous life cycle. Some core gut bacteria persist throughout different stages of development. Gut microbiota of newly emerged workers always resembles those of their queens, suggesting a vertical transmission of strains from queens to the newborn workers. We then follow the dynamic changes in the gut community by comparing strain-level metagenomic profiles of queen-worker pairs longitudinally collected across different stages of the nest development. Species composition of both queen and worker shifts with the colony’s growth, and the queen-to-worker vertical inheritance of specific strains was identified. Finally, comparative metagenome analysis showed clear host-specificity for microbes across different bee hosts. Species from honeybees often possess a higher level of strain variation, and they also exhibited more complex gene repertoires linked to polysaccharide digestion. Our results demonstrate bacterial transmission events in bumblebee, highlighting the role of social interactions in driving the microbiota composition.ConclusionsBy the community-wide metagenomic analysis based on the custom genomic database of bee gut bacteria, we reveal strain transmission events at high resolution and the dynamic changes in community structure along with the colony development. The social annual life cycle of bumblebees is key for the acquisition and development of the gut microbiota. Further studies using the bumblebee model will advance our understanding of the microbiome transmission and the underlying mechanisms, such as strain competition and niche selection.DndA2Lw_mPA4b2NMU2mTwyVideo
Highlights
Microbial acquisition and development of the gut microbiota impact the establishment of a healthy host-microbes symbiosis
Following the gut composition across different life stages, we found that the 16S rRNA amplicon profiles at phylum-level dramatically changed with the development (Fig. 1b)
The differences of the routes of microbiota transmission that is associated with their life cycles apparently affect the strain-level diversity and the functional profiles of the gut community
Summary
Microbial acquisition and development of the gut microbiota impact the establishment of a healthy host-microbes symbiosis. The eusocial bumblebees and honeybees possess a simple, recurring, and similar set of gut microbiota. Gut communities of different bee species are composed of host-specific groups of strains. Animals are colonized by a myriad of microbes that play important roles in host health. Increasing evidences have shown that microbial associations are present in diverse animals and are functionally essential. How social transmission and metamorphosis affect the acquisition process of vertically transmitted microbes remains elusive. This is mainly due to the difficulty to track the changes and potential exchanges of diverse microbiota across hosts
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
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 call
