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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Bee Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #356170
Title: Influence of food and Nosema ceranae infection on the gut microbiota of Apis cerana workers

Author
item HUANG, SHAO - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item YE, KUN - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item HUANG, WEI - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item YING, BI - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item SU, XIN - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item LI, LIN - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item LI, JIANG - Fujian Agriculture And Forest University
item Chen, Yanping - Judy
item LI, JI - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item BAO, XIU - The Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai
item HU, ZIAN - The Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai

Submitted to: mSystems
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/2018
Publication Date: 11/6/2018
Citation: Huang, S.K., Ye, K.T., Huang, W.F., Ying, B.H., Su, X., Li, L., Li, J.H., Chen, Y., Li, J.L., Bao, X.L., Hu, Z.Z. 2018. Influence of food and Nosema ceranae infection on the gut microbiota of Apis cerana workers. mSystems. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00177-18.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00177-18

Interpretive Summary: Honey bee gut harbors a diverse and complex microbial community which plays a central role in helping control many aspects of bee health. Using modern DNA sequencing techniques, we conducted a study to investigate the diversity and abundance of gut microbial community in Asian bees under two treatment conditions: 1) fed with sugar water or bee beebread, and 2) exposed to microsporidia parasite Nosema ceranae challenge or not. The results showed that both food type and N. ceranae infection could significantly affect the gut microbiota in honey bee workers. N. ceranae infected workers fed with sugar water had a significantly higher mortality compared to those fed with beebread. Our results suggest that beebread feeding not only provides better nutrition but also helps bees establish a more stabled gut microbial community, thereby helping to protect bees against N. ceranae infection. Our study provides novel insights into the understanding of the bee nutrition and diseases. The knowledge gained from this study should be of interest to the researchers, graduate students, beekeepers, and apiary inspectors in bee society worldwide

Technical Abstract: BACKGROUND: Gut microbiota plays an essential role in bee's health. To elucidate the effect of food and Nosema ceranae infection on the gut microbiota of the Asian honeybee Apis cerana, we used 16S rRNA sequencing to survey the gut microbiota of honeybee workers fed with sugar water or beebread and inoculated with or without N. ceranae. RESULTS: The gut microbiota of A. cerana is dominated by Serratia, Snodgrassella, and Lactobacillus genera. The overall gut microbiota diversity was significantly differential by food type. The N. ceranae infection significantly affects the gut microbiota only at bees fed with sugar water. Higher abundance of Lactobacillus, Gluconacetobacter and Snodgrassella and lower abundance of Serratia were found in bees fed with beebread than with sugar water. N. ceranae infection led to higher abundance of Snodgrassella and lower abundance of Serratia in sugar-fed bees. Imputed bacterial KEGG pathways showed the significant metagenomics functional differences by feeding and N. ceranae infections. Furthermore, A. cerana workers fed with sugar water showed lower N. ceranae spore loads but higher mortality than those fed with beebread. The cumulative mortality was strongly positive correlated (rho=0.61) with the changes of overall microbiota dissimilarities by N. ceranae infection. CONCLUSION: Both food and N. ceranae infection significantly affect the gut microbiota in A. cerana workers. Beebread feeding not only provide better nutrition but also help establish a more stabled gut microbiota therefore protect bee in response to N. ceranae infection.