Overwintering Honey Bee Colonies: Effect of Worker Age and Climate on the Hindgut Microbiota.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee overwintering health is essential to meet the demands of spring pollination. Managed honey bee colonies are overwintered in a variety of climates, and increasing rates of winter colony loss have prompted investigations into overwintering management, including indoor climate controlled overwintering. Central to colony health, the worker hindgut gut microbiota has been largely ignored in this context. We sequenced the hindgut microbiota of overwintering workers from both a warm southern climate and controlled indoor cold climate. Congruently, we sampled a cohort of known chronological age to estimate worker longevity in southern climates, and assess age-associated changes in the core hindgut microbiota. We found that worker longevity over winter in southern climates was much lower

SUBMITTER: Maes PW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8000648 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature