ETH Zürich, Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ), Universitätsstrasse 16, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
Microb Ecol. 2011 Jul;62(1):121-33. doi: 10.1007/s00248-011-9854-3. Epub 2011 May 10.
Recent studies on the microbial flora of the honeybee gut have revealed an apparently highly specific community of resident bacteria that might play a role in immune defence and food preservation for their hosts. However, at present, very little is known about the diversity and ecology of bacteria occurring in non-domesticated bees like bumblebees, which are of similar importance as honeybees for the pollination of agricultural and wild flowers. To fill this gap in knowledge, we examined six of the most common bumblebee species in Central Europe from three locations in Germany and Switzerland for their bacterial communities. We used a culture-independent molecular approach based on sequencing the 16S rRNA gene from a selection of individuals and examining a larger number of samples by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles. The gut flora was dominated by very few and mostly undescribed groups of bacteria belonging to the Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. This core set of bacteria was present in all of the examined bumblebee species. These bacteria are similar to, but distinct from, bacteria previously described from the honeybee gut. Significant differences were observed between the communities of bacteria in the different bumblebee species; the effect of sampling location was less strong. A novel group of Betaproteobacteria additionally shows evidence for host species-specific genotypes. The gut flora of bumblebees therefore is apparently composed of relatively few highly specialized bacteria, indicating a strong interaction and possibly important functions with their hosts.
最近对蜜蜂肠道微生物菌群的研究揭示了一种明显高度特化的常驻细菌群落，它可能在宿主的免疫防御和食物保存中发挥作用。然而，目前对于非驯化蜜蜂（如熊蜂）中细菌的多样性和生态学知之甚少，熊蜂对于农业和野生花卉的授粉与蜜蜂同样重要。为了填补这一知识空白，我们从德国和瑞士的三个地点检查了中欧六种最常见的熊蜂物种的细菌群落。我们使用了一种基于从个体中选择的 16S rRNA 基因测序的非培养分子方法，并通过末端限制性片段长度多态性图谱检查了更多样本。肠道菌群主要由属于变形菌门、拟杆菌门、厚壁菌门和放线菌门的极少数和大多数未描述的细菌群组成。这组核心细菌存在于所有检查过的熊蜂物种中。这些细菌与以前描述的蜜蜂肠道细菌相似，但又有所不同。在不同的熊蜂物种中观察到细菌群落之间存在显著差异；采样地点的影响则较弱。一组新的β变形菌还显示出宿主种特异性基因型的证据。因此，熊蜂的肠道菌群显然由相对较少的高度特化细菌组成，这表明它们与宿主之间存在强烈的相互作用和可能的重要功能。
