scholarly journals Genomic changes underlying host specialization in the bee gut symbiont Lactobacillus Firm5

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
KM Ellegaard ◽  
S Brochet ◽  
G Bonilla-Rosso ◽  
O Emery ◽  
N Glover ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Host Specialization ◽  
Divergent Evolution ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Genomic Changes ◽  
Social Bees ◽  
Gut Symbionts ◽  
Phylogenetic Lineages

AbstractBacteria that engage in longstanding associations with particular hosts are expected to evolve host-specific adaptations that limit their capacity to thrive in other environments. Consistent with this, many gut symbionts seem to have a limited host range, based on community profiling and phylogenomics. However, few studies have experimentally investigated host specialization of gut symbionts and underlying mechanisms have largely remained elusive. Here, we studied host specialization of a dominant gut symbiont of social bees, Lactobacillus Firm5. We show that Firm5 strains isolated from honey bees and bumble bees separate into deep-branching host-specific phylogenetic lineages. Despite their divergent evolution, colonization experiments show that bumble bee strains are capable of colonizing the honey bee gut. However, they were less successful than honey bee strains, and competition with honey bee strains completely abolished their colonization. In contrast honey bee strains of divergent phylogenetic lineages were able to coexist within individual bees. This suggests that both host selection and interbacterial competition play important roles for host specialization. Using comparative genomics of 27 Firm5 isolates, we found that the genomes of honey bee strains harbor more carbohydrate-related functions than bumble bee strains, possibly providing a competitive advantage in the honey bee gut. Remarkably, most of the genes encoding carbohydrate-related functions were not conserved among the honey bee strains, which suggests that honey bees can support a metabolically more diverse community of Firm5 strains than bumble bees. These findings advance our understanding of genomic changes underlying host specialization.

First Complete Genome of Lake Sinai Virus Lineage 3 and Genetic Diversity of Lake Sinai Virus Strains From Honey Bees and Bumble Bees

2020 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 1055-1061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Šimenc ◽  
Urška Kuhar ◽  
Urška Jamnikar-Ciglenečki ◽  
Ivan Toplak
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Complete Genome ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Genome Region ◽  
Pcr Method ◽  
Next Generation Sequencing Ngs ◽  
First Time

Abstract The complete genome of Lake Sinai virus 3 (LSV3) was sequenced by the Ion Torrent next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology from an archive sample of honey bees collected in 2010. This strain M92/2010 is the first complete genome sequence of LSV lineage 3. From October 2016 to December 2017, 56 honey bee samples from 32 different locations and 41 bumble bee samples from five different locations were collected. These samples were tested using a specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method; 75.92% of honey bee samples and 17.07% of bumble bee samples were LSV-positive with the RT-PCR method. Phylogenetic comparison of 557-base pair-long RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) genome region of selected 23 positive samples of honey bees and three positive bumble bee samples identified three different LSV lineages: LSV1, LSV2, and LSV3. The LSV3 lineage was confirmed for the first time in Slovenia in 2010, and the same strain was later detected in several locations within the country. The LSV strains detected in bumble bees are from 98.6 to 99.4% identical to LSV strains detected among honey bees in the same territory.

Diversity, density, efficiency, and effectiveness of pollinators of cicer milkvetch, Astragalus cicer L.

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (9) ◽  
pp. 2168-2176 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Propagation Rate ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Bee Pollination ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Astragalus Cicer

Diversity, density, efficiency, and effectiveness of pollinators of cicer milkvetch, Astragalus cicer L., grown at two locations in southern Alberta were studied from 1978 to 1983. Twenty-seven species of bees were identified as pollinators. At Lethbridge, honey bees (Apis mellifera) comprised 74% of the observations, bumble bees 16%, and leafcutter bees 10%, while at Spring Coulee, the proportions were honey bees 14%, bumble bees 69%, and leafcutter bees 17%. The rate of foraging by pollinator species from flower to flower varied; bumble bee species, especially Bombus nevadensis Cress., foraged consistently more efficiently than honey bees or alfalfa leafcutter bees, Megachile rotundata (F.). A theoretical approach used to predict the bee populations required to pollinate varying flower densities shows that the population of B. nevadensis required is about half those of Bombus huntii Greene and M. rotundata and less than one-quarter that of the honey bee. Pollination by B. nevadensis consistently resulted in more seeds per pod than with any other bumble bee species, the honey bee, or M. rotundata. Of the nine species of bumble bee that established colonies in artificial domiciles near the field, B. nevadensis established the most colonies each year. The number of workers and sexuals produced per colony varied considerably among bumble bee species with only 55% of the colony establishments producing workers and 31% producing sexuals. The propagation rate and quality of alfalfa leafcutter bees produced on cicer milkvetch was excellent.

scholarly journals Using Commercial Bumble Bee Colonies as Backup Pollinators for Honey Bees to Produce Cucumbers and Watermelons

1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Stanghellini ◽  
J.T. Ambrose ◽  
J.R. Schultheis
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Citrullus Lanatus ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Insect Visitation ◽  
Parasitic Mite ◽  
Fruit Abortion ◽  
Bee Colonies

The effectiveness of bumble bees, Bombus impatiens Cresson, and honey bees, Apis mellifera L., on the pollination of cucumber, Cucumis sativus L., and watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai, was compared under field conditions. Comparisons were based on fruit abortion rates and seed set as influenced by bee type (honey bee or bumble bee) and the number of bee visits to treatment flowers (1, 6, 12, and 18 bee visits), plus two controls: a no-visit treatment and an open-pollinated (unrestricted visitation) treatment. For both crops, an increased number of bee visits had a strong positive effect on fruit and seed set. All cucumber and watermelon flowers bagged to prevent insect visitation aborted, demonstrating the need for active transfer of pollen between staminate and pistillate flowers. Bumble bee-visited flowers consistently had lower abortion rates and higher seed sets in the cucumber and watermelon studies than did honey bee-visited flowers when compared at the same bee visitation level. Only slight differences in fruit abortion rates were detected between bee types in the watermelon study. However, abortion rates for bumble bee-visited flowers were consistently less than those for honey bee-visited flowers when compared at equal bee visitation levels, with one exception at the 12 bee visit level. As the number of honey bee colonies continues to decline due to parasitic mite pests and based on the data obtained, we conclude that bumble bees have a great potential to serve as a supplemental pollinator for cucumbers, watermelons, and possibly other vine crops, when honey bees available for rental are in limited supply.

scholarly journals Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies benefit from grassland/ pasture while bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) colonies in the same landscapes benefit from non-corn/soybean cropland

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257701
Author(s):  
Gabriela M. Quinlan ◽  
Meghan O. Milbrath ◽  
Clint R. V. Otto ◽  
Rufus Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
The United States ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Bombus Impatiens ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Social Bees

Agriculturally important commercially managed pollinators including honey bees (Apis mellifera L., 1758) and bumble bees (Bombus impatiens Cresson, 1863) rely on the surrounding landscape to fulfill their dietary needs. A previous study in Europe demonstrated that managed honey bee foragers and unmanaged native bumble bee foragers are associated with different land uses. However, it is unclear how response to land use compares between managed honey bees and a managed native bumble bee species in the United States, where honey bees are an imported species. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no such direct comparisons of bee responses to land use have been made at the colony level. To better understand how two different social bees respond to variation in land use, we monitored the weights of A. mellifera and B. impatiens colonies placed in 12 apiaries across a range of land use in Michigan, United States in 2017. Bombus impatiens colonies gained more weight and produced more drones when surrounded by diverse agricultural land (i.e., non-corn/soybean cropland such as tree fruits and grapes), while honey bee colonies gained more weight when surrounded by more grassland/pasture land. These findings add to our understanding of how different bee species respond to agricultural landscapes, highlighting the need for further species-specific land use studies to inform tailored land management.

scholarly journals Genomics and host specialization of honey bee and bumble bee gut symbionts

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (31) ◽  
pp. 11509-11514 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. K. Kwong ◽  
P. Engel ◽  
H. Koch ◽  
N. A. Moran
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Host Specialization ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Gut Symbionts

scholarly journals Olfactory coding in the antennal lobe of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Mertes ◽  
Julie Carcaud ◽  
Jean-Christophe Sandoz
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bees ◽  
Antennal Lobe ◽  
Bombus Terrestris ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Bumble Bee ◽  
Carbon Chain Length ◽  
Olfactory Coding ◽  
Major Transitions

AbstractSociality is classified as one of the major transitions in evolution, with the largest number of eusocial species found in the insect order Hymenoptera, including the Apini (honey bees) and the Bombini (bumble bees). Bumble bees and honey bees not only differ in their social organization and foraging strategies, but comparative analyses of their genomes demonstrated that bumble bees have a slightly less diverse family of olfactory receptors than honey bees, suggesting that their olfactory abilities have adapted to different social and/or ecological conditions. However, unfortunately, no precise comparison of olfactory coding has been performed so far between honey bees and bumble bees, and little is known about the rules underlying olfactory coding in the bumble bee brain. In this study, we used in vivo calcium imaging to study olfactory coding of a panel of floral odorants in the antennal lobe of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris. Our results show that odorants induce reproducible neuronal activity in the bumble bee antennal lobe. Each odorant evokes a different glomerular activity pattern revealing this molecule’s chemical structure, i.e. its carbon chain length and functional group. In addition, pairwise similarity among odor representations are conserved in bumble bees and honey bees. This study thus suggests that bumble bees, like honey bees, are equipped to respond to odorants according to their chemical features.

scholarly journals Higher Variability in Fungi Compared to Bacteria in the Foraging Honey Bee Gut

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie E. Decker ◽  
Priscilla A. San Juan ◽  
Magdalena L. Warren ◽  
Cory E. Duckworth ◽  
Cheng Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Model System ◽  
Pathogen Transmission ◽  
Host Health ◽  
Gut Symbionts

AbstractMicrobial communities in the honey bee gut have emerged as a model system to understand the effects of host-associated microbes on animals and plants. The specific distribution patterns of bacterial associates among honey bee gut regions remains a key finding within the field. The mid- and hindgut of foraging bees house a deterministic set of core species that affect host health. In contrast, the crop, or honey stomach, contains a more diverse set of bacteria that is highly variable in composition among individual bees. Whether this contrast between the two gut regions also applies to fungi, another major group of gut-associated microbes, remains unclear despite their potential influence on host health. In honey bees caught foraging at four sites across the San Francisco Peninsula, we found that fungi were much less distinct in species composition between the crop and the mid- and hindgut than bacteria. Unlike bacteria, fungi were highly variable in composition throughout the gut, and much of this variation was attributable to bee collection site. These patterns suggest that the fungi may be passengers rather than functionally significant gut symbionts. However, many of the fungi we found in the bees have been recognized as plant pathogens. Assuming that some fungi remain viable after passage through the gut, the distribution patterns we report here point to the potential importance of honey bees as vectors of fungal pathogens and suggest a more prominent role of honey bees in plant pathogen transmission than generally thought.Importance (Nontechnical explanation of why the work was undertaken)Along with bacteria, fungi make up a significant portion of animal- and plant-associated microbial communities. However, we have only begun to describe these fungi, much less examine their effects on most animals and plants. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, has emerged as a model system for studying host-associated microbes. Honey bees contain well-characterized bacteria specialized to inhabit different regions of the gut. Fungi also exist in the honey bee gut, but their composition and function remain largely undescribed. Here we show that, unlike bacteria, fungi vary substantially in species composition throughout the honey bee gut, contingent on where the bees are sampled. This observation suggests that fungi may be transient passengers and therefore unimportant as gut symbionts. However, our findings also indicate that honey bees could be major vectors of infectious plant diseases as many of the fungi we found in the honey bee gut are recognized as plant pathogens.

ALSIKE CLOVER POLLINATION BY HONEY BEES IN THE PEACE RIVER REGION

1959 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pankiw ◽  
C. R. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
Flowering Period ◽  
Peace River ◽  
River Region ◽  
Native Pollinator ◽  
Seed Yields

Pollination studies involving zero, one and three colonies of honey bees per acre, on commercial alsike clover fields ranging in size from 15 to 75 acres, were conducted in 1954, 1955, and 1957 in the Hinton Trail district of the Peace River Region of Alberta. These studies indicated that in large fields one colony of honey bees per acre is sufficient to pollinate alsike clover, consideration being given to competition of other crops and to the climatic conditions. The influence of competing crops was such that 65- to 75-acre fields, with one colony per acre, were similar in honey bee populations and seed production to 15- to 20-acre fields with three colonies per acre. Competing plant species accounted for 15 to 36 per cent of the pollen collected by honey bees. Fields with the higher populations of pollinators matured earlier than fields deficient in pollinators. A population of 3400 honey bees per acre (0.7 bee per sq. yd.) throughout the flowering period resulted in seed sets up to 82 per cent and seed yields to 375 lb. per acre. Check fields, where no honey bees were supplied, ranged in production from 29 lb. per acre, with a low native pollinator count, to 293 lb. where a pollinator equivalent of 1300 bumble bees per acre was observed. Bumble bees worked alsike clover at the rate of 28.6 florets per minute, as compared to 20.0 for leaf-cutter bees and 18.7 for honey bees.

scholarly journals Busy Bees: Variation in Insect Flower-Visiting Rates across Multiple Plant Species

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Couvillon ◽  
Chandra M. Walter ◽  
Eluned M. Blows ◽  
Tomer J. Czaczkes ◽  
Karin L. Alton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Bumble Bees ◽  
The Other ◽  
Insect Diversity ◽  
Visitation Rates ◽  
Insect Visitation ◽  
Flower Visiting

We quantified insect visitation rates by counting how many flowers/inflorescences were probed per unit time for five plant species (four native and one garden: California lilac, bramble, ragwort, wild marjoram, and ivy) growing in Sussex, United Kingdom, by following individual insects (n=2987) from nine functional groups (honey bees (Apis mellifera), bumble bees (Bombusspp.), hoverflies, flies, butterflies, beetles, wasps, non-Apidae bees, and moths). Additionally, we made a census of the insect diversity on the studied plant species. Overall we found that insect groups differed greatly in their rate of flower visits (P<2.2e-16), with bumble bees and honey bees visiting significantly more flowers per time (11.5 and 9.2 flowers/minute, resp.) than the other insect groups. Additionally, we report on a within-group difference in the non-Apidae bees, where the genusOsmia, which is often suggested as an alternative to honey bees as a managed pollinator, was very speedy (13.4 flowers/minute) compared to the other non-Apidae bees (4.3 flowers/minute). Our census showed that the plants attracted a range of insects, with the honey bee as the most abundant visitor (34%). Therefore, rate differences cannot be explained by particular specializations. Lastly, we discuss potential implications of our conclusions for pollination.

scholarly journals Genomic Signatures of Honey Bee Association in an Acetic Acid Symbiont

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1882-1894
Author(s):  
Eric A Smith ◽  
Irene L G Newton
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Food Stores ◽  
Genomic Changes ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Bee Health ◽  
Honey Bee Health ◽  
Honey Bee Queens

Abstract Recent declines in the health of the honey bee have startled researchers and lay people alike as honey bees are agriculture’s most important pollinator. Honey bees are important pollinators of many major crops and add billions of dollars annually to the US economy through their services. One factor that may influence colony health is the microbial community. Indeed, the honey bee worker digestive tract harbors a characteristic community of bee-specific microbes, and the composition of this community is known to impact honey bee health. However, the honey bee is a superorganism, a colony of eusocial insects with overlapping generations where nestmates cooperate, building a hive, gathering and storing food, and raising brood. In contrast to what is known regarding the honey bee worker gut microbiome, less is known of the microbes associated with developing brood, with food stores, and with the rest of the built hive environment. More recently, the microbe Bombella apis was identified as associated with nectar, with developing larvae, and with honey bee queens. This bacterium is related to flower-associated microbes such as Saccharibacter floricola and other species in the genus Saccharibacter, and initial phylogenetic analyses placed it as sister to these environmental bacteria. Here, we used comparative genomics of multiple honey bee-associated strains and the nectar-associated Saccharibacter to identify genomic changes that may be associated with the ecological transition to honey bee association. We identified several genomic differences in the honey bee-associated strains, including a complete CRISPR/Cas system. Many of the changes we note here are predicted to confer upon Bombella the ability to survive in royal jelly and defend themselves against mobile elements, including phages. Our results are a first step toward identifying potential function of this microbe in the honey bee superorganism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document