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. 2024 Jan 26;108(1):175.
doi: 10.1007/s00253-023-12942-1.

Yeast communities related to honeybees: occurrence and distribution in flowers, gut mycobiota, and bee products

Alice Agarbati  1 , Silvia Gattucci  1 , Laura Canonico  1 , Maurizio Ciani  1 , Francesca Comitini  2
Affiliations

Yeast communities related to honeybees: occurrence and distribution in flowers, gut mycobiota, and bee products

Alice Agarbati et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) is an important agricultural pollinator and a model for sociality. In this study, a deep knowledge on yeast community characterizing the honeybees' environmental was carried out. For this, a total of 93 samples were collected: flowers as food sources, bee gut mycobiota, and bee products (bee pollen, bee bread, propolis), and processed using culture-dependent techniques and a molecular approach for identification. The occurrence of yeast populations was quantitatively similar among flowers, bee gut mycobiota, and bee products. Overall, 27 genera and 51 species were identified. Basidiomycetes genera were predominant in the flowers while the yeast genera detected in all environments were Aureobasidium, Filobasidium, Meyerozyma, and Metschnikowia. Fermenting species belonging to the genera Debaryomyces, Saccharomyces, Starmerella, Pichia, and Lachancea occurred mainly in the gut, while most of the identified species of bee products were not found in the gut mycobiota. Five yeast species, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, Debaryomyces hansenii, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Hanseniaspora guilliermondii, and Starmerella roseus, were present in both summer and winter, thus indicating them as stable components of bee mycobiota. These findings can help understand the yeast community as a component of the bee gut microbiota and its relationship with related environments, since mycobiota characterization was still less unexplored. In addition, the gut microbiota, affecting the nutrition, endocrine signaling, immune function, and pathogen resistance of honeybees, represents a useful tool for its health evaluation and could be a possible source of functional yeasts. KEY POINTS: • The stable yeast populations are represented by M. guilliermondii, D. hansenii, H. uvarum, H. guilliermondii, and S. roseus. • A. pullulans was the most abondance yeast detective in the flowers and honeybee guts. • Aureobasidium, Meyerozyma, Pichia, and Hanseniaspora are the main genera resident in gut tract.

Keywords: Bee bread; Bee pollen; Honeybees; Honeybees gut; Propolis; Yeasts detection.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Relative abundance (%) of yeast genera in the three sample typologies analyzed. a, b, and c Graphs showing the occurrence of yeast genera in flowers, the forager bee gut, and bee products, respectively
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Presence of yeast species, expressed as relative abundance (%), distributed in flower samples (a) forager bee gut (b) and bee products (c) sampled both in summer ( formula image ) and winter ( formula image ), with the exception of flowers, which were available only in summer
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Presence of yeast species, expressed as relative abundance (%), distributed in flower samples (a) forager bee gut (b) and bee products (c) sampled both in summer ( formula image ) and winter ( formula image ), with the exception of flowers, which were available only in summer
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Principal component analysis (PCA) based on the relative abundance of the yeast species detected in each sample typologies (flowers, forager bee gut, and bee products) according to seasonality. Variance explained by PCA (principal component analysis) is Component 1, 29.4% X-axis and Component 2, 25.5% Y-axis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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