Diversity and functional analysis of Chinese bumblebee gut microbiota reveal the metabolic niche and antibiotic resistance variation of Gilliamella

AbstractBumblebees play an important role in maintaining the balance of natural and agricultural ecosystems, and the characteristic gut microbiota of bumblebees exhibit significant mutualistic functions. China has the highest diversity of bumblebees; however, gut microbiota of Chinese bumblebees have mostly been investigated through culture ‐independent studies. Here, we analyzed the gut communities of bumblebees from Sichuan, Yunnan, and Shaanxi provinces in China through 16S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing and bacterial isolation. It revealed that the bumblebees examined in this study harbored two gut enterotypes as previously re ported: one is dominated byGilliamella andSnodgrassella, and the other is distinguished by prevalent environmental species. The gut compositions obviously varied among different individual bees. We then isolated 325 bacterial strains and the comparative genomic analysis ofGilliamella strains revealed that galactose and pectin digestion pathways were conserved in strains from bumblebees, while genes for the utilization of arabinose, mannose, xylose, and rhamnose were mostly lost. Only two strains from the Chinese bumblebees possess the multidrug ‐resistant geneemrB, which is phylogenetically closely related to that from the symbionts of soil entomopathogenic nematode. In contrast, tetracycline ‐resistant genes were uniquely present in three strains from the USA. Our results illustrate the prevalence of strain‐level variations in the metabo...
Source: Insect Science - Category: Biology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research