Do the bacteria the Madagascan honey bee interactwith change during the rainy season in Madagascar | Interagerar Madagaskars honungsbi med olikabakterier under regnperioden i Madagaskar
2025
Hardell, Ivar
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are a very important pollinator worldwide with many subspeciesacross the world. Even though they are important we don’t know enough about their gutmicrobiome, which consists of e.g. bacteria. These bacteria can either be detrimental or veryimportant for their health. Especially little is known about the subspecies gut microbiome,which is why this study looked at the Madagascan honey bees (Apis mellifera unicolor) gutmicrobiome and if there was a seasonal variation of the microbiome. As bacteria bees interactwith change with different species of flowers, by comparing the frequency of occurrence, therelative abundance and the diversity of bacterial genera throughout the rainy season inMadagascar the seasonal variation can be looked at, with multiple honey samples gatheredduring the honey-producing period. A genome-skimming approach was used to identify thegenera stored in the honey. The frequency of occurrence and relative abundance showedsimilar results to other studies, further proving that certain microbes have a symbioticrelationship with even the Madagascan honey bee. The diversity showed no difference duringthe rainy season, which conflicts with some other studies, this could be because the gutmicrobiome of the Madagascan honey bee is already so established that it is very hard for newbacteria to get introduced. This shows that further studying should be done to gain a betterunderstanding of the the seasonality of the gut microbiome of honey bees.
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