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A short exposure to a semi-natural habitat alleviates the honey bee hive microbial imbalance caused by agricultural stress.

ABSTRACT: Honeybee health and the species' gut microbiota are interconnected. Also noteworthy are the multiple niches present within hives, each with distinct microbiotas and all coexisting, which we termed "apibiome". External stressors (e.g. anthropization) can compromise microbial balance and bee resilience. We hypothesised that (1) the bacterial communities of hives located in areas with different degrees of anthropization differ in composition, and (2) due to interactions between the multiple microbiomes within the apibiome, changes in the community of a niche would impact the bacteria present in other hive sections. We characterised the bacterial consortia of different niches (bee gut, bee bread, hive entrance and internal hive air) of 43 hives from 3 different environments (agricultural, semi-natural and natural) through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Agricultural samples presented lower community evenness, depletion of beneficial bacteria, and increased recruitment of stress related pathways (predicted via PICRUSt2). The taxonomic and functional composition of gut and hive entrance followed an environmental gradient. Arsenophonus emerged as a possible indicator of anthropization, gradually decreasing in abundance from agriculture to the natural environment in multiple niches. Importantly, after 16 days of exposure to a semi-natural landscape hives showed intermediate profiles, suggesting alleviation of microbial dysbiosis through reduction of anthropization.

SUBMITTER: Gorrochategui-Ortega J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9637708 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A short exposure to a semi-natural habitat alleviates the honey bee hive microbial imbalance caused by agricultural stress.

Gorrochategui-Ortega June J Muñoz-Colmenero Marta M Kovačić Marin M Filipi Janja J Puškadija Zlatko Z Kezić Nikola N Parejo Melanie M Büchler Ralph R Estonba Andone A Zarraonaindia Iratxe I

Scientific reports 20221106 1

Honeybee health and the species' gut microbiota are interconnected. Also noteworthy are the multiple niches present within hives, each with distinct microbiotas and all coexisting, which we termed "apibiome". External stressors (e.g. anthropization) can compromise microbial balance and bee resilience. We hypothesised that (1) the bacterial communities of hives located in areas with different degrees of anthropization differ in composition, and (2) due to interactions between the multiple microbi ...[more]

PMID: 36336704

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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

A short exposure to a semi-natural habitat alleviates the honey bee hive microbial imbalance caused by agricultural stress.

Publications

A short exposure to a semi-natural habitat alleviates the honey bee hive microbial imbalance caused by agricultural stress.

Similar Datasets

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