Microbial communities of three sympatric Australian stingless bee species

Bacterial symbionts of insects have received increasing attention due to their prominent role in nutrient acquisition and defense. In social bees, symbiotic bacteria can maintain colony homeostasis and fitness, and the loss or alteration of the bacterial community may be associated with the ongoing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-08, Vol.9 (8), p.e105718-e105718
Main Authors: Leonhardt, Sara D, Kaltenpoth, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal behavior
Animals
Apidae
Apis mellifera
Australia
Austroplebeia australis
Bacteria
Bees
Bees - microbiology
Bioinformatics
Biology and Life Sciences
Bombus
Bumblebees
Ecosystems
European honeybee
Fitness
Flowers & plants
Genes
Homeostasis
Honey
Insects
Lactic acid
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacilli
Lactobacillus - classification
Lactobacillus - physiology
Meliponini
Microbial activity
Microbiota
Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms)
Microbiota - physiology
Microorganisms
Phylogeny
Plant reproduction
Reproductive fitness
Species
Symbionts
Sympatric populations
Taxonomy
Tetragonula
Tetragonula carbonaria
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Summary:Bacterial symbionts of insects have received increasing attention due to their prominent role in nutrient acquisition and defense. In social bees, symbiotic bacteria can maintain colony homeostasis and fitness, and the loss or alteration of the bacterial community may be associated with the ongoing bee decline observed worldwide. However, analyses of microbiota associated with bees have been largely confined to the social honeybees (Apis mellifera) and bumblebees (Bombus spec.), revealing--among other taxa--host-specific lactic acid bacteria (LAB, genus Lactobacillus) that are not found in solitary bees. Here, we characterized the microbiota of three Australian stingless bee species (Apidae: Meliponini) of two phylogenetically distant genera (Tetragonula and Austroplebeia). Besides common plant bacteria, we find LAB in all three species, showing that LAB are shared by honeybees, bumblebees and stingless bees across geographical regions. However, while LAB of the honeybee-associated Firm4-5 clusters were present in Tetragonula, they were lacking in Austroplebeia. Instead, we found a novel clade of likely host-specific LAB in all three Australian stingless bee species which forms a sister clade to a large cluster of Halictidae-associated lactobacilli. Our findings indicate both a phylogenetic and geographical signal of host-specific LAB in stingless bees and highlight stingless bees as an interesting group to investigate the evolutionary history of the bee-LAB association.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0105718