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Journal Article
Gut microbial communities of social bees
2016
Overview
Key Points
A distinctive microbial community of approximately nine bacterial species clusters inhabits the bee gut.
These bacteria are host-adapted, and each species cluster occupies particular niches and spatial locations in the bee.
The gut microbial community of the bee is transmitted through social contact, similar to the mode of transmission in mammals.
The characteristic microbial community of the bee gut can be perturbed and invaded by opportunistic microorganisms, which resembles disease states in humans.
There is substantial strain-level diversity in the bee gut microbiota, with individual strains harbouring unique sets of genes with distinct functional capabilities. How this diversity arises and is maintained is not well understood.
Metabolically, most members of the microbial community in the bee gut are fermentative, breaking down the carbohydrate-rich diet of bees into products, such as lactic acid and acetate. Although not yet well-established, these fermentative microorganisms may have a role in contributing to the nutrition of hosts.
The normal bee gut microbiota has been associated with lower levels of infection with pathogens, which may indicate a beneficial role of the microbiota for the host bee.
The bee gut microbiota can be cultured
in vitro
, and gnotobiotic bees can be easily produced, which makes bees a tractable model for the study of the symbiosis of gut microorganisms.
The gut of honey bees is inhabited by a small group of highly host-adapted bacteria. In this Review, Kwong and Moran detail the composition and functions of the microbiota of honey bees and highlight similarities and differences to the human microbiota.
The gut microbiota can have profound effects on hosts, but the study of these relationships in humans is challenging. The specialized gut microbial community of honey bees is similar to the mammalian microbiota, as both are mostly composed of host-adapted, facultatively anaerobic and microaerophilic bacteria. However, the microbial community of the bee gut is far simpler than the mammalian microbiota, being dominated by only nine bacterial species clusters that are specific to bees and that are transmitted through social interactions between individuals. Recent developments, which include the discovery of extensive strain-level variation, evidence of protective and nutritional functions, and reports of eco-physiological or disease-associated perturbations to the microbial community, have drawn attention to the role of the microbiota in bee health and its potential as a model for studying the ecology and evolution of gut symbionts.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
