Gut Bacterial Microbiota of The Honeybee, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) with a New Host Record

Abstract

Gut microbial communities of the honeybee, Apis mellifera L. have vital functions in food digestion, providing essential nutrients, improving immune system against pathogens, and detoxifying harmful molecules. The objective of this study was to characterize the core gut bacterial community of newly emerged A. mellifera queens and workers from southeastern Turkey. A total of newly emerged 15 queens and 30 workers were collected from the same apiary. The alimentary tract of collected samples was dissected under sterile conditions. Culture based isolation was performed from the digestive tract of the collected samples to obtain a pure microbe culture. The chemical, morphological and molecular description of each bacteria were accurately done via employment of pure culture. Five bacterial isolates were successfully isolated from the A. mellifera alimentary tract and purified. Molecular and biochemical identification showed that the isolates were Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus (Firmicutes: Bacillaceae) (MZ540443, MZ540444, MZ540445), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (Firmicutes: Staphylococcaceae) (MZ540447), and Paenibacillus glucanolyticus (Firmicutes: Paenibacillaceae) (MZ540446). This study is the first to report the presence of P. glucanolyticus in gut bacterial community of A. mellifera.