Department of Sustainable Crop Production-DIPROVES, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy.
Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council, Piazzale Enrico Fermi 1, 80055, Portici, Naples, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 15;11(1):5946. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-85153-1.
Apis mellifera is an important provider of ecosystem services, and during flight and foraging behaviour is exposed to environmental pollutants including airborne particulate matter (PM). While exposure to insecticides, antibiotics, and herbicides may compromise bee health through alterations of the gut microbial community, no data are available on the impacts of PM on the bee microbiota. Here we tested the effects of ultrapure Titanium dioxide (TiO) submicrometric PM (i.e., PM, less than 1 µm in diameter) on the gut microbiota of adult bees. TiO PM is widely used as a filler and whitening agent in a range of manufactured objects, and ultrapure TiO PM is also a common food additive, even if it has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a possible human carcinogen in Group 2B. Due to its ubiquitous use, honey bees may be severely exposed to TiO ingestion through contaminated honey and pollen. Here, we demonstrated that acute and chronic oral administration of ultrapure TiO PM to adult bees alters the bee microbial community; therefore, airborne PM may represent a further risk factor for the honey bee health, promoting sublethal effects against the gut microbiota.
意大利蜜蜂是生态系统服务的重要提供者，在飞行和觅食过程中会暴露于环境污染物中，包括空气传播的颗粒物（PM）。虽然接触杀虫剂、抗生素和除草剂可能会通过改变肠道微生物群落来损害蜜蜂的健康，但目前尚无关于 PM 对蜜蜂微生物群影响的数据。在这里，我们测试了超纯二氧化钛（TiO）亚微米 PM（即 PM，直径小于 1 µm）对成年蜜蜂肠道微生物群的影响。TiO PM 广泛用作各种制造物品的填充物和增白剂，超纯 TiO PM 也是一种常见的食品添加剂，尽管它已被国际癌症研究机构（IARC）归类为 2B 组可能的人类致癌物。由于其广泛的使用，意大利蜜蜂可能会通过受污染的蜂蜜和花粉严重摄入 TiO。在这里，我们证明了超纯 TiO PM 的急性和慢性口服给药会改变蜜蜂的微生物群落；因此，空气传播的 PM 可能代表着蜜蜂健康的另一个风险因素，对肠道微生物群产生亚致死影响。
