Dataset Information

In-hive variation of the gut microbial composition of honey bee larvae and pupae from the same oviposition time.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Knowledge of microbiota composition, persistence, and transmission as well as the overall function of the bacterial community is important and may be linked to honey bee health. This study aimed to investigate the inter-individual variation in the gut microbiota in honey bee larvae and pupae.

Results

Individual larvae differed in the composition of major bacterial groups. In the majority of 5th instar bees, Firmicutes showed predominance (70%); however, after larval defecation and during pupation, the abundance decreased to 40%, in favour of Gammaproteobacteria. The 5th instar larvae hosted significantly more (P < 0.001) Firmicutes than black pupae. Power calculations revealed that 11 and 18 replicate-individuals, respectively, were required for the detection of significant differences (P < 0.05) in the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes abundance between stages, while higher numbers of replicates were required for Actinobacteria (478 replicates) and Gammaproteobacteria (111 replicates).

Conclusions

Although sample processing and extraction protocols may have had a significant influence, sampling is very important for studying the bee microbiome, and the importance of the number of individuals pooled in samples used for microbiome studies should not be underestimated.

SUBMITTER: Hroncova Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6534886 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

In-hive variation of the gut microbial composition of honey bee larvae and pupae from the same oviposition time.

Hroncova Zuzana Z Killer Jiri J Hakl Josef J Titera Dalibor D Havlik Jaroslav J

BMC microbiology 20190524 1

<h4>Background</h4>Knowledge of microbiota composition, persistence, and transmission as well as the overall function of the bacterial community is important and may be linked to honey bee health. This study aimed to investigate the inter-individual variation in the gut microbiota in honey bee larvae and pupae.<h4>Results</h4>Individual larvae differed in the composition of major bacterial groups. In the majority of 5th instar bees, Firmicutes showed predominance (70%); however, after larval def ...[more]

PMID: 31126234

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Project description:Three commercial honey bee operations in Saskatchewan, Canada, with outbreaks of American foulbrood (AFB) and recent or ongoing metaphylactic antibiotic use were intensively sampled to detect spores of Paenibacillus larvae during the summer of 2019. Here, we compared spore concentrations in different sample types within individual hives, assessed the surrogacy potential of honey collected from honey supers in place of brood chamber honey or adult bees within hives, and evaluated the ability of pooled, extracted honey to predict the degree of spore contamination identified through individual hive testing. Samples of honey and bees from hives within apiaries with a recent, confirmed case of AFB in a single hive (index apiaries) and apiaries without clinical evidence of AFB (unaffected apiaries), as well as pooled, apiary-level honey samples from end-of-season extraction, were collected and cultured to detect and enumerate spores. Only a few hives were heavily contaminated by spores in any given apiary. All operations were different from one another with regard to both the overall degree of spore contamination across apiaries and the distribution of spores between index apiaries and unaffected apiaries. Within operations, individual hive spore concentrations in unaffected apiaries were significantly different from index apiaries in the brood chamber (BC) honey, honey super (HS) honey, and BC bees of one of three operations. Across all operations, BC honey was best for discriminating index apiaries from unaffected apiaries (p = 0.001), followed by HS honey (p = 0.06), and BC bees (p = 0.398). HS honey positively correlated with both BC honey (rs = 0.76, p < 0.0001) and bees (rs = 0.50, p < 0.0001) and may be useful as a surrogate for either. Spore concentrations in pooled, extracted honey seem to have predictive potential for overall spore contamination within each operation and may have prognostic value in assessing the risk of future AFB outbreaks at the apiary (or operation) level.

Project description:Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the primary pollinators of major horticultural crops. Over the last few decades, a substantial decline in honey bees and their colonies have been reported. While a plethora of factors could contribute to the putative decline, pathogens, and pesticides are common concerns that draw attention. In addition to potential direct effects on honey bees, indirect pesticide effects could include alteration of essential gut microbial communities and symbionts that are important to honey bee health (e.g., immune system). The primary objective of this study was to determine the microbiome associated with honey bees exposed to commonly used in-hive pesticides: coumaphos, tau-fluvalinate, and chlorothalonil. Treatments were replicated at three independent locations near Blacksburg Virginia, and included a no-pesticide amended control at each location. The microbiome was characterized through pyrosequencing of V2-V3 regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS region. Pesticide exposure significantly affected the structure of bacterial but not fungal communities. The bee bacteriome, similar to other studies, was dominated by sequences derived from Bacilli, Actinobacteria, α-, β-, γ-proteobacteria. The fungal community sequences were dominated by Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes. The Multi-response permutation procedures (MRPP) and subsequent Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis indicated that chlorothalonil caused significant change to the structure and functional potential of the honey bee gut bacterial community relative to control. Putative genes for oxidative phosphorylation, for example, increased while sugar metabolism and peptidase potential declined in the microbiome of chlorothalonil exposed bees. The results of this field-based study suggest the potential for pesticide induced changes to the honey bee gut microbiome that warrant further investigation.

Dataset Information

In-hive variation of the gut microbial composition of honey bee larvae and pupae from the same oviposition time.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

In-hive variation of the gut microbial composition of honey bee larvae and pupae from the same oviposition time.

Similar Datasets

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