Global Composition of the Bacteriophage Community in Honey Bees.

ABSTRACT: The microbial communities in animal digestive systems are critical for host development and health. They stimulate the immune system during development, synthesize important chemical compounds like hormones, aid in digestion, competitively exclude pathogens, etc. Compared to the bacterial and fungal components of the microbiome, we know little about the temporal and spatial dynamics of bacteriophage communities in animal digestive systems. Recently, the bacteriophages of the honey bee gut were characterized in two European bee populations. Most of the bacteriophages described in these two reports were novel, harbored many metabolic genes in their genomes, and had a community structure that suggests coevolution with their bacterial hosts. To describe the conservation of bacteriophages in be

SUBMITTER: Busby TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9040601 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature