Associate Professor Agnes Scott College - Decatur, GA Decatur, Georgia, United States
Background/Question/Methods
The microbial community in many animals plays a role in bodily functions such as metabolism, growth, or protection against pathogens. The western honeybee, Apis mellifera hosts a relatively stable 8 microbial symbionts in their gut. Although the composition of the gut microbiome of honeybees is relatively stable across populations, there is variation between colonies. Honeybees from different colonies can differ in the composition or abundance of the core bacteria. The reason for this variation is relatively unknown. Factors that may influence changes in abundance may include colony health or diet which can be impacted by season and location. In this study, we asked two main questions. First, are there differences between the gut and honey microbial communities of colonies? If there are differences, do they change within colonies over time? Second, are there more similarities in the gut and honey microbiome within a colony rather than between colonies over time? In Fall 2014 and Spring 2015, we collected individual bee guts and honey samples from 6 colonies from two locations in Georgia. We sequenced the 16S rRNA gene and characterized the microbial communities of bee guts and honey samples from each colony.
Results/Conclusions
We found that season and sample type were the significant drivers of microbial community composition between colonies. We also found that specific bacterial taxa including Bifidobacterium and Neisseriaceae were dominant within colonies across seasons.
