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Honeybee nutrition is linked to landscape composition.

ABSTRACT: Declines in insect pollinators in Europe have been linked to changes in land use. Pollinator nutrition is dependent on floral resources (i.e., nectar and pollen), which are linked to landscape composition. Here, we present a stratified analysis of the nutritional composition of beebread in managed honeybee hives with a view to examining potential sources of variation in its nutritional composition. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that beebread composition correlates with local land use and therefore available floral resources. The results demonstrated that the starch, lipid, and moisture contents of beebread are all highly conserved across hives, whereas levels of protein and nonreducing sugar increased as the year progressed, reducing sugars, however, decreased during the first half of the year and then increased toward the end. Local land use around hives was quantified using data from the Countryside Survey 2007 Land Cover Map. Bee-bread protein content was negatively correlated with increasing levels of arable and horticultural farmland surrounding hives and positively correlated with the cover of natural grasslands and broadleaf woodlands. Reducing sugar content was also positively correlated with the amount of broad-leaved woodland in a 3 Km² radius from the hives. Previous studies on a range of invertebrates, including honeybees, indicate that dietary protein intake may have a major impact on correlates of fitness, including longevity and immune function. The finding that beebread protein content correlates with land use suggests that landscape composition may impact on insect pollinator well-being and provides a link between landscape and the nutritional ecology of socially foraging insects in a way not previously considered.

SUBMITTER: Donkersley P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4242570 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Honeybee nutrition is linked to landscape composition.

Donkersley Philip P Rhodes Glenn G Pickup Roger W RW Jones Kevin C KC Wilson Kenneth K

Ecology and evolution 20141014 21

Declines in insect pollinators in Europe have been linked to changes in land use. Pollinator nutrition is dependent on floral resources (i.e., nectar and pollen), which are linked to landscape composition. Here, we present a stratified analysis of the nutritional composition of beebread in managed honeybee hives with a view to examining potential sources of variation in its nutritional composition. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that beebread composition correlates with local land use an ...[more]

PMID: 25505544

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Project description:BackgroundFungi associated with insects represent one potentially rich source for the discovery of novel metabolites. However, a comprehensive understanding of the fungal communities of Apis mellifera ligustica remains elusive.ResultsHere, we investigated the phylogenetic diversity and community composition of honeybee-associated fungi using combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. A total of forty-five fungi were isolated and purified from the Apis mellifera ligustica, royal jelly, and honeycomb, which belonged to four classes and eleven different genera. Furthermore, 28 bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained by PCR from the fungal metagenome. High-throughput sequencing analyses revealed that the fungal communities were more diverse, a total of 62 fungal genera were detected in the honeybee gut by culture-independent method, whereas only 4 genera were isolated by culture-dependent method. Similarly, 247 fungal genera were detected in the honeycomb, whereas only 4 genera were isolated. In addition, we assessed the antibacterial and antioxidant activities of fungal isolates. Most fungal crude extracts obtained from the cultivation supernatant exhibited antioxidant activities. Only two fungal crude extracts displayed moderate activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Chemical analysis of Chaetomium subaffine MFFC22 led to the discovery of three known compounds, including cochliodinol (1), emodin (2), chrysophanol (3). Among them, cochliodinol (1) showed intense DPPH radical scavenging activity with the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 3.06 μg/mL, which was comparable to that of the positive ascorbic acid (IC50 = 2.25 μg/mL). Compound 2 displayed weak inhibitory activities against Micrococcus tetragenus and S. aureus.ConclusionsThis research provided a fundamental clue for the complex interactions among honeybees, fungi, bacterial symbionts, and the effects on the honeybee. Furthermore, the diversity of honeybee-associated fungi had great potential in finding the resource of new species and antioxidants.

Project description:BackgroundThe health of honeybee colonies is critical for bee products and agricultural production, and colony health is closely associated with the bacteria in the guts of honeybees. Although colony loss in winter is now the primary restriction in beekeeping, the effects of different sugars as winter food on the health of honeybee colonies are not well understood. Therefore, in this study, the influence of different sugar diets on honeybee gut bacteria during overwintering was examined.ResultsThe bacterial communities in honeybee midguts and hindguts before winter and after bees were fed honey, sucrose, and high-fructose syrup as winter-food were determined by targeting the V3-V4 region of 16S rDNA using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The dominant microbiota in honeybee guts were the phyla Proteobacteria (63.17%), Firmicutes (17.61%; Lactobacillus, 15.91%), Actinobacteria (4.06%; Bifidobacterium, 3.34%), and Bacteroidetes (1.72%). The dominant taxa were conserved and not affected by season, type of overwintering sugar, or spatial position in the gut. However, the relative abundance of the dominant taxa was affected by those factors. In the midgut, microbial diversity of the sucrose group was higher than that of the honey and high-fructose syrup groups, but in the hindgut, microbial diversity of the honey and high-fructose groups was higher than that in the sucrose group. Sucrose increased the relative abundance of Actinobacteria (Bifidobacteriales Bifidobacteriaceae) and Alphaproteobacteria (Rhizobiales and Mitochondria) of honeybee midgut, and honey enriched the Bacteroidetes and Gammaproteobacteria (Pasteurellales) in honeybee hindgut. High-fructose syrup increased the relative abundance of Betaproteobacteria (Neisseriales: Neisseriaceae) of the midgut.ConclusionThe type of sugar used as winter food affected the relative abundance of the dominant bacterial communities in honeybee guts, not the taxa, which could affect the health and safety of honeybee colonies during overwintering. The presence of the supernal Alphaproteobacteria, Bifidobacteriales, and Lactobacillaceae in the gut of honeybees fed sucrose and cheaper than honey both indicate that sucrose is very suitable as the overwintering food for honeybees.

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Honeybee nutrition is linked to landscape composition.

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Honeybee nutrition is linked to landscape composition.

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