Seasonally increasing parasite load is associated with microbiota dysbiosis in wild bumblebees.

ABSTRACT: Gut microbiota often influence host defense against infection, but this relationship is incompletely understood in wild bumblebees. These critical pollinators host a characteristic core gut microbiota, yet field studies have offered conflicting insights into its association with Crithidia bombi, a prevalent trypanosomid parasite. To address this gap in our knowledge, we conducted an 3 year field survey, profiling the gut microbiota of 638 bumblebees from 9 sympatric species across diverse sites in Maine using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and qPCR for C. bombi detection. We confirmed a robust core bumblebee microbiota, identifying novel host-specific phylogenetic associations of bacterial amplicon sequence variants even among closely related host species. C. bombi infec

SUBMITTER: Young MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12710312 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature