ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2013
Specificity between lactobacilli and hymenopteran hosts is the exception rather than the rule.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microbial Evolution in Allodapine Bees: Perspectives From Trophallactic, Socially Plastic Pollinators.Evolutionary applications · 2025Review
- Host specificity of gut microbiota associated with social bees: patterns and processes.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Symbiotic bacteria and fungi proliferate in diapause and may enhance overwintering survival in a solitary bee.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Bumble bee microbiota shows temporal succession and increase of lactic acid bacteria when exposed to outdoor environments.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Host species and geography impact bee-associated RNA virus communities with evidence for isolation by distance in viral populations.ISME communications · 2024Article
- Neotropical bee microbiomes point to a fragmented social core and strong species-level effects.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Review
- Bee breweries: The unusually fermentative, lactobacilli-dominated brood cell microbiomes of cellophane bees.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Sequencing to identify pathogens inFrontiers in insect science · 2023Article
- Gut microbiota is a potential factor in shaping phenotypic variation in larvae and adults of female bumble bees.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Elevated Temperature May Affect Nectar Microbes, Nectar Sugars, and Bumble Bee Foraging Preference.Microbial ecology · 2022Article
- Exosymbiotic microbes within fermented pollen provisions are as important for the development of solitary bees as the pollen itself.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Dominance of Fructose-AssociatedInsects · 2022Article
- Composition and acquisition of the microbiome in solitary, ground-nesting alkali bees.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Lactic Acid Bacteria Are Prevalent in the Infrabuccal Pockets and Crops of Ants That Prefer Aphid Honeydew.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Microbiome of the wasp Vespula pensylvanica in native and invasive populations, and associations with Moku virus.PloS one · 2021Article
- Floral and Foliar Source Affect the Bee Nest Microbial Community.Microbial ecology · 2019Article
- Comparative Genomics of Wild Bee and Flower Isolated Lactobacillus Reveals Potential Adaptation to the Bee Host.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Wild Bee Pollen Usage and Microbial Communities Co-vary Across Landscapes.Microbial ecology · 2019Article
- Microbial Community Composition Reveals Spatial Variation and Distinctive Core Microbiome of the Weaver Ant Oecophylla smaragdina in Malaysia.Scientific reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Lactobacilli (Lactobacillales: Lactobacillaceae) are well known for their roles in food fermentation, as probiotics, and in human health, but they can also be dominant members of the microbiota of some species of Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps). Honey bees and bumble bees associate with host-specific lactobacilli, and some evidence suggests that these lactobacilli are important for bee health. Social transmission helps maintain associations between these bees and their respective microbiota. To determine whether lactobacilli associated with social hymenopteran hosts are generally host specific, we gathered publicly available Lactobacillus 16S rRNA gene sequences, along with Lactobacillus sequences from 454 pyrosequencing surveys of six other hymenopteran species (three sweat bees and three ants). We determined the comparative secondary structural models of 16S rRNA, which allowed us to accurately align the entire 16S rRNA gene, including fast-evolving regions. BLAST searches and maximum-likelihood phylogenetic reconstructions confirmed that honey and bumble bees have host-specific Lactobacillus associates. Regardless of colony size or within-colony oral sharing of food (trophallaxis), sweat bees and ants associate with lactobacilli that are closely related to those found in vertebrate hosts or in diverse environments. Why honey and bumble bees associate with host-specific lactobacilli while other social Hymenoptera do not remains an open question. Lactobacilli are known to inhibit the growth of other microbes and can be beneficial whether they are coevolved with their host or are recruited by the host from environmental sources through mechanisms of partner choice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.