Bioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
Computational Bio Big Data Open Innovation Laboratory (CBBD-OIL), AIST.
Microbes Environ. 2024;39(1). doi: 10.1264/jsme2.ME23081.
Gut microbes have many beneficial functions for host animals, such as food digestion and development of the immune system. An increasing number of studies report that gut bacteria also affect host neural function and behavior. The sucrose responsiveness of the western honey bee Apis mellifera, which harbors a characteristic gut microbiota, was recently reported to be increased by the presence of gut microbes. However, this responsiveness may vary depending on the experimental design, as animal behavior may be modulated by physiological states and environmental conditions. To evaluate the robustness of the effects of the gut microbiota on host gustatory responsiveness, we herein examined the sucrose responsiveness of honey bees colonized with a defined bacterial community or a conventional gut microbiota extracted from a field-collected bee. Although colonization was experimentally verified, sucrose responsiveness did not significantly differ among treatments after the 2- or 5-h starvation period. We concluded that the sucrose responsiveness of A. mellifera is not always affected by its gut microbiota. Therefore, host physiological conditions and environmental factors need to be considered when evaluating the impact of the gut microbiota on host neural function and behavior.
肠道微生物对宿主动物有许多有益的功能，例如食物消化和免疫系统的发育。越来越多的研究报告称，肠道细菌也会影响宿主的神经功能和行为。最近有报道称，具有特征性肠道微生物群的西方蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）对蔗糖的反应性因肠道微生物的存在而增加。然而，这种反应性可能因实验设计而异，因为动物的行为可能会受到生理状态和环境条件的调节。为了评估肠道微生物群对宿主味觉反应性的影响的稳健性，我们在此检查了用定义的细菌群落或从野外采集的蜜蜂中提取的常规肠道微生物群定植的蜜蜂的蔗糖反应性。尽管进行了实验验证，但在 2 或 5 小时饥饿期后，蔗糖反应性在处理之间没有显著差异。我们得出结论，A. mellifera 的蔗糖反应性并不总是受其肠道微生物群的影响。因此，在评估肠道微生物群对宿主神经功能和行为的影响时，需要考虑宿主的生理条件和环境因素。
