A lurker just point me out to this PlosOne paper
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033188
Symbionts as Major Modulators of Insect Health: Lactic Acid Bacteria
and Honeybees
Alejandra Vásquez1*, Eva Forsgren2, Ingemar Fries2, Robert J.
Paxton3,4, Emilie Flaberg5, Laszlo Szekely5, Tobias C. Olofsson1#*
1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical Microbiology, Lund
University, Lund, Sweden, 2 Department of Ecology, Swedish University
of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, 3 School of Biological
Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom, 4
Institute for Biology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg,
Halle (Saale), Germany, 5 Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell
Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract Top
1Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are well recognized beneficial
host-associated members of the microbiota of humans and animals. Yet
LAB-associations of invertebrates have been poorly characterized and
their functions remain obscure. Here we show that honeybees possess an
abundant, diverse and ancient LAB microbiota in their honey crop with
beneficial effects for bee health, defending them against microbial
threats. Our studies of LAB in all extant honeybee species plus
related apid bees reveal one of the largest collections of novel
species from the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium ever
discovered within a single insect and suggest a long (>80 mya) history
of association. Bee associated microbiotas highlight Lactobacillus
kunkeei as the dominant LAB member. Those showing potent antimicrobial
properties are acquired by callow honey bee workers from nestmates and
maintained within the crop in biofilms, though beekeeping management
practices can negatively impact this microbiota. Prophylactic
practices that enhance LAB, or supplementary feeding of LAB, may serve
in integrated approaches to sustainable pollinator service provision.
We anticipate this microbiota will become central to studies on
honeybee health, including colony collapse disorder, and act as an
exemplar case of insect-microbe symbiosis.
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