Natural diversity of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) gut bacteriome in various climatic and seasonal states

PLoS One. 2022 Sep 9;17(9):e0273844. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273844. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

As pollinators and producers of numerous human-consumed products, honey bees have great ecological, economic and health importance. The composition of their bacteriota, for which the available knowledge is limited, is essential for their body's functioning. Based on our survey, we performed a metagenomic analysis of samples collected by repeated sampling. We used geolocations that represent the climatic types of the study area over two nutritionally extreme periods (March and May) of the collection season. Regarding bacteriome composition, a significant difference was found between the samples from March and May. The samples' bacteriome from March showed a significant composition difference between cooler and warmer regions. However, there were no significant bacteriome composition differences among the climatic classes of samples taken in May. Based on our results, one may conclude that the composition of healthy core bacteriomes in honey bees varies depending on the climatic and seasonal conditions. This is likely due to climatic factors and vegetation states determining the availability and nutrient content of flowering plants. The results of our study prove that in order to gain a thorough understanding of a microbiome's natural diversity, we need to obtain the necessary information from extreme ranges within the host's healthy state.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bees
  • Humans
  • Metagenomics*
  • Seasons

Grants and funding

The project is supported (MP) by the European Union and co-financed by the European Social Fund (No. EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00005). It has also received funding (NS) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 874735 (VEO). GM received support from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences through the Lendület-Programme (LP2020-5/2020). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.