Environment and Pollen Diversity Differentially Affect the Gut Microbiomes of Introduced Honeybees and Bumblebees.
Haque S, Ponton F, Allen AP, Gamage HKAH, Encinas-Viso F
Pollinator Health
PubMedThe bees pollinating your vegetable garden and fruit trees carry gut bacteria shaped by the local flowers they visit, meaning the diversity of plants you grow directly influences how healthy and resilient those pollinators are.
Scientists looked inside the guts of two types of bees — honeybees and bumblebees — that were both brought to a new region and found that the tiny microbes living there were shaped by very different things. For honeybees, the local environment mattered more, while for bumblebees, the variety of pollen they ate made a bigger difference. This tells us that different bee species adjust to new homes in their own ways, which could affect how well they pollinate plants.
Key Findings
Environmental site variables were the primary driver of gut microbiome composition in introduced European honeybees
Pollen diversity (diet breadth) had a stronger influence on gut microbiome structure in introduced bumblebees than in honeybees
The two bee species with contrasting introduction histories showed significantly different patterns of microbiome response to the same ecological pressures
chevron_right Technical Summary
Introduced honeybees and bumblebees respond differently to new environments and local pollen sources, with each species showing distinct gut microbiome shifts driven by different factors. This suggests that how long a bee species has been in a new region — and what flowers it visits — shapes its internal microbial community in unique ways.
Abstract Preview
Invasive species may exhibit shifts in their gut microbiome in response to novel environments and diet, but this may differ across host species and their time since colonisation. We investigate if ...
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