School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
PeerJ. 2023 Jul 26;11:e15645. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15645. eCollection 2023.
Honey produced by the Australian honeypot ant () is valued nutritionally and medicinally by Indigenous peoples, but its antimicrobial activity has never been formally studied. Here, we determine the activity of honeypot ant honey (HPAH) against a panel of bacterial and fungal pathogens, investigate its chemical properties, and profile the bacterial and fungal microbiome of the honeypot ant for the first time. We found HPAH to have strong total activity against but not against other bacteria, and strong non-peroxide activity against and sp. When compared with therapeutic-grade jarrah and manuka honey produced by honey bees, we found HPAH to have a markedly different antimicrobial activity and chemical properties, suggesting HPAH has a unique mode of antimicrobial action. We found the bacterial microbiome of honeypot ants to be dominated by the known endosymbiont genus Blochmannia (99.75%), and the fungal microbiome to be dominated by the plant-associated genus (92.77%). This study demonstrates that HPAH has unique antimicrobial characteristics that validate its therapeutic use by Indigenous peoples and may provide a lead for the discovery of novel antimicrobial compounds.
由澳大利亚蜜罐蚁（）生产的蜂蜜在营养和药用方面受到土著人民的重视，但它的抗菌活性从未得到过正式研究。在这里，我们确定了蜜罐蚁蜂蜜（HPAH）对一系列细菌和真菌病原体的活性，研究了它的化学性质，并首次对蜜罐蚁的细菌和真菌微生物组进行了分析。我们发现 HPAH 对 具有很强的总活性，但对其他细菌没有活性，对 和 sp. 的非过氧化物活性很强。与由蜜蜂生产的药用级桉树和麦卢卡蜂蜜相比，我们发现 HPAH 的抗菌活性和化学性质有明显的不同，这表明 HPAH 具有独特的抗菌作用模式。我们发现蜜罐蚁的细菌微生物组主要由已知的内共生菌属 （Blochmannia）（99.75%）组成，真菌微生物组主要由与植物相关的属 （）（92.77%）组成。这项研究表明，HPAH 具有独特的抗菌特性，这验证了土著人民对其的治疗用途，并可能为发现新型抗菌化合物提供线索。
