Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.

The gut microflora of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, is receiving increasing attention as a potential determinant of the bees' health and their efficacy as pollinators. Studies have focused primarily on the microbial taxa that appear numerically dominant in the bee gut, with the assumption that...

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Autores principales:	Ashley P Good, Marie-Pierre L Gauthier, Rachel L Vannette, Tadashi Fukami
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/68673e5cec51470791f9d31f19d71cb8
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:68673e5cec51470791f9d31f19d71cb82021-11-18T08:36:24ZHoney bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0086494https://doaj.org/article/68673e5cec51470791f9d31f19d71cb82014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24466119/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The gut microflora of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, is receiving increasing attention as a potential determinant of the bees' health and their efficacy as pollinators. Studies have focused primarily on the microbial taxa that appear numerically dominant in the bee gut, with the assumption that the dominant status suggests their potential importance to the bees' health. However, numerically minor taxa might also influence the bees' efficacy as pollinators, particularly if they are not only present in the gut, but also capable of growing in floral nectar and altering its chemical properties. Nonetheless, it is not well understood whether honey bees have any feeding preference for or against nectar colonized by specific microbial species. To test whether bees exhibit a preference, we conducted a series of field experiments at an apiary using synthetic nectar inoculated with specific species of bacteria or yeast that had been isolated from the bee gut, but are considered minor components of the gut microflora. These species had also been found in floral nectar. Our results indicated that honey bees avoided nectar colonized by the bacteria Asaia astilbes, Erwinia tasmaniensis, and Lactobacillus kunkeei, whereas the yeast Metschnikowia reukaufii did not affect the feeding preference of the insects. Our results also indicated that avoidance of bacteria-colonized nectar was caused not by the presence of the bacteria per se, but by the chemical changes to nectar made by the bacteria. These findings suggest that gut microbes may not only affect the bees' health as symbionts, but that some of the microbes may possibly affect the efficacy of A. mellifera as pollinators by altering nectar chemistry and influencing their foraging behavior.Ashley P GoodMarie-Pierre L GauthierRachel L VannetteTadashi FukamiPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 1, p e86494 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Ashley P Good Marie-Pierre L Gauthier Rachel L Vannette Tadashi Fukami Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
description	The gut microflora of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, is receiving increasing attention as a potential determinant of the bees' health and their efficacy as pollinators. Studies have focused primarily on the microbial taxa that appear numerically dominant in the bee gut, with the assumption that the dominant status suggests their potential importance to the bees' health. However, numerically minor taxa might also influence the bees' efficacy as pollinators, particularly if they are not only present in the gut, but also capable of growing in floral nectar and altering its chemical properties. Nonetheless, it is not well understood whether honey bees have any feeding preference for or against nectar colonized by specific microbial species. To test whether bees exhibit a preference, we conducted a series of field experiments at an apiary using synthetic nectar inoculated with specific species of bacteria or yeast that had been isolated from the bee gut, but are considered minor components of the gut microflora. These species had also been found in floral nectar. Our results indicated that honey bees avoided nectar colonized by the bacteria Asaia astilbes, Erwinia tasmaniensis, and Lactobacillus kunkeei, whereas the yeast Metschnikowia reukaufii did not affect the feeding preference of the insects. Our results also indicated that avoidance of bacteria-colonized nectar was caused not by the presence of the bacteria per se, but by the chemical changes to nectar made by the bacteria. These findings suggest that gut microbes may not only affect the bees' health as symbionts, but that some of the microbes may possibly affect the efficacy of A. mellifera as pollinators by altering nectar chemistry and influencing their foraging behavior.
format	article
author	Ashley P Good Marie-Pierre L Gauthier Rachel L Vannette Tadashi Fukami
author_facet	Ashley P Good Marie-Pierre L Gauthier Rachel L Vannette Tadashi Fukami
author_sort	Ashley P Good
title	Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
title_short	Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
title_full	Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
title_fullStr	Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
title_full_unstemmed	Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
title_sort	honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/68673e5cec51470791f9d31f19d71cb8
work_keys_str_mv	AT ashleypgood honeybeesavoidnectarcolonizedbythreebacterialspeciesbutnotbyayeastspeciesisolatedfromthebeegut AT mariepierrelgauthier honeybeesavoidnectarcolonizedbythreebacterialspeciesbutnotbyayeastspeciesisolatedfromthebeegut AT rachellvannette honeybeesavoidnectarcolonizedbythreebacterialspeciesbutnotbyayeastspeciesisolatedfromthebeegut AT tadashifukami honeybeesavoidnectarcolonizedbythreebacterialspeciesbutnotbyayeastspeciesisolatedfromthebeegut
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Honey bees avoid nectar colonized by three bacterial species, but not by a yeast species, isolated from the bee gut.

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