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Microbiota of the digestive tract of bees and related insect and the influencing facftors
Hroncová, Zuzana ; Havlík, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Kalous, Lukáš (referee)
This thesis consists of six research chapters, out of which, five have already been published in research journals, 1 is in the process of submission and the last chapter presents original unpublished confidential data in the process of manuscript preparation.
The research presented in this thesis concerns the complex mechanisms of bees and wasps immune system focused on microbiota as component of immunity. As shown in the introduction, highly social and managed species of bees like honey bees and bumble bees, play key roles in natural and agricultural ecosystems worldwide. Recent losses of bees have been attributed to pesticide exposure, poor nutrition, increased parasite loads and habitat degradation. Over the past several years, governments, beekeepers, and the general public worldwide have become concerned by increased losses of honey bee colonies, calling for more research on how to keep colonies healthy. Our main aim was to explore the complex mechanisms of bees and related species gut bacterial populations, their links to insect immunity and investigate the opportunities for an intervention. Part of our aim was to characterise the bumble bee and wasp gut microbiota using 16S RNA sequencing in a search for potentially novel bacterial species.
We have tried to explain how microbiome interacts with the host and showed that major members of these communities appear to benefit the host. The simple gut communities of social bees present ideal model systems to investigate the underlying evolutionary and genetic processes of such interactions. Information based on our results may help in the design of proper probiotic supplementation strategies with respect to physiological conditions in the honey bee gut.
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