The effect of migratory beekeeping on Indian honey bee ( Apis cerana indica ) microbiota – a first report

AbstractMigratory beekeeping is a widely extended practice aimed at increasing the yield of honey and pollination services. Microbial symbionts that inhabit the honey bee’s gut are essential to their host’s food digestion, immunity, and gut protection. Throughout the honey bee life cycle and at several migratory sites, the taxonomic composition of the gut microbiota changes. However, it is yet unknown how significant changes in migratory locations, such as altered floral supply, parasitism and pathogen infestation, affect the dynamics of the gut microbiota. The goal of this study was to describe the Indian honey bee (Apis cerana indica) gut microbiome at different migratory sites of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. Our results found that the core bacterial composition of the microbiota was consistent over different migratory sites. Despite this stability, our comparisons of the microbiota of honey bees from the same colony show that there are differences in composition at different migratory sites. Likewise, there is variation in relative abundance between microbiomes of different migratory sites. The four most dominant phyla were Proteobacteria followed by Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota and Firmicutes. Most of the isolates belonged to families of Xanthomonadaceae, Orbaceae, Weeksellaceae, Bifidobacteriaceae, Rhizobiaceae, Neisseriaceae, Lactobacillaceae, Dysgonomonadaceae, Clostridiaceae and Enterococcaceae. However, several commensal bacteria that proliferate in the hive environment including members of Lactobacillaceae (Lactobacillus kunkeei), Bifidobacteriaceae, Orbaceae and Neisseriaceae were also identified and considered as beneficial gut inhabitants and involved in the maintenance of a healthy microbiota. This is the first report on bee gut microbiota from Puducherry and Tamil Nadu geographically situated at the southeast coast of India.Keywords: Apis cerana indicamigratory beekeepinggut microbiotacommensal bacteriasocial immunity AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank TANSCHE, for the project entitled “Development of Sericulture and Apiculture – a viable remunerative approach for the sustainable livelihood of coastal farmers, rural youth and women” as well as the Qbiogen, Chennai for their next-generation sequencing expertise. The authors also wish to thank the farmers and Aurobindo farm for providing their field to conduct the experiments and help during the transport of the hives.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Syngenta Private Ltd., Coimbatore [Grant No. 600-O-635].