Study of the Metatranscriptome of Eight Social and Solitary Wild Bee Species Reveals Novel Viruses and Bee Parasites.

ABSTRACT: Bees are associated with a remarkable diversity of microorganisms, including unicellular parasites, bacteria, fungi, and viruses. The application of next-generation sequencing approaches enables the identification of this rich species composition as well as the discovery of previously unknown associations. Using high-throughput polyadenylated ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing, we investigated the metatranscriptome of eight wild bee species (Andrena cineraria, Andrena fulva, Andrena haemorrhoa, Bombus terrestris, Bombus cryptarum, Bombus pascuorum, Osmia bicornis, and Osmia cornuta) sampled from four different localities in Belgium. Across the RNA sequencing libraries, 88-99% of the taxonomically informative reads were of the host transcriptome. Four viruses with homology to i

SUBMITTER: Schoonvaere K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5817871 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature