Vairimorpha (Nosema) ceranae Infection Alters Honey Bee Microbiota Composition and Sustains the Survival of Adult Honey Bees.

ABSTRACT: Vairimorpha (Nosema) ceranae is the most common eukaryotic gut pathogen in honey bees. Infection is typically chronic but may result in mortality. Gut microbiota is a factor that was recently noted for gut infectious disease development. Interestingly, studies identified positive, instead of negative, associations between core bacteria of honey bee microbiota and V. ceranae infection. To investigate the effects of the positive associations, we added isomaltooligosaccharide (IMO), a prebiotic sugar also found in honey, to enhance the positive associations, and we then investigated the infection and the gut microbiota alterations using qPCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We found that infected bees fed IMO had significantly higher V. ceranae spore counts but lower mortalities. In microbiota c

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8464679 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature