Grubbs Kirk J, Scott Jarrod J, Budsberg Kevin J, Read Harry, Balser Teri C, Currie Cameron R
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, Maine, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Apr 7;10(4):e0121697. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121697. eCollection 2015.
Microbial communities (microbiomes) are associated with almost all metazoans, including the honey bee Apis mellifera. Honey bees are social insects, maintaining complex hive systems composed of a variety of integral components including bees, comb, propolis, honey, and stored pollen. Given that the different components within hives can be physically separated and are nutritionally variable, we hypothesize that unique microbial communities may occur within the different microenvironments of honey bee colonies. To explore this hypothesis and to provide further insights into the microbiome of honey bees, we use a hybrid of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and phospholipid-derived fatty acid (PLFA) analysis to produce broad, lipid-based microbial community profiles of stored pollen, adults, pupae, honey, empty comb, and propolis for 11 honey bee hives. Averaging component lipid profiles by hive, we show that, in decreasing order, lipid markers representing fungi, Gram-negative bacteria, and Gram-positive bacteria have the highest relative abundances within honey bee colonies. Our lipid profiles reveal the presence of viable microbial communities in each of the six hive components sampled, with overall microbial community richness varying from lowest to highest in honey, comb, pupae, pollen, adults and propolis, respectively. Finally, microbial community lipid profiles were more similar when compared by component than by hive, location, or sampling year. Specifically, we found that individual hive components typically exhibited several dominant lipids and that these dominant lipids differ between components. Principal component and two-way clustering analyses both support significant grouping of lipids by hive component. Our findings indicate that in addition to the microbial communities present in individual workers, honey bee hives have resident microbial communities associated with different colony components.
微生物群落（微生物组）几乎与所有后生动物都有关联，包括蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）。蜜蜂是社会性昆虫，维持着由多种不可或缺的成分组成的复杂蜂巢系统，这些成分包括蜜蜂、蜂巢、蜂胶、蜂蜜和储存的花粉。鉴于蜂巢内的不同成分在物理上可以分离且营养成分各异，我们推测在蜜蜂群落的不同微环境中可能存在独特的微生物群落。为了探究这一假设并进一步深入了解蜜蜂的微生物组，我们采用脂肪酸甲酯（FAME）和磷脂衍生脂肪酸（PLFA）分析相结合的方法，对11个蜜蜂蜂巢的储存花粉、成虫、蛹、蜂蜜、空蜂巢和蜂胶进行基于脂质的广泛微生物群落分析。通过蜂巢对成分脂质谱进行平均，我们发现，按相对丰度从高到低排列，代表真菌、革兰氏阴性菌和革兰氏阳性菌的脂质标记物在蜜蜂群落中含量最高。我们的脂质谱显示，在采样的六个蜂巢成分中均存在有活力的微生物群落，总体微生物群落丰富度分别从蜂蜜、蜂巢、蛹、花粉、成虫到蜂胶依次从低到高变化。最后，按成分比较时微生物群落脂质谱比按蜂巢、位置或采样年份比较时更为相似。具体而言，我们发现单个蜂巢成分通常表现出几种主要脂质，且这些主要脂质在不同成分之间存在差异。主成分分析和双向聚类分析均支持按蜂巢成分对脂质进行显著分组。我们的研究结果表明，除了单个工蜂体内存在的微生物群落外，蜜蜂蜂巢还存在与不同蜂群成分相关的常驻微生物群落。
