ArticlePLoS biology2017
Disentangling metabolic functions of bacteria in the honey bee gut.
Article in PLoS biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 222 papers.
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Who cites it
222 citing papers in PubMed.
- Probiotic Characterization of Honey Bee-Associated Lactic Acid Bacteria and Their Impact on Colony Growth.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2026Article
- An engineered bacterial symbiont maps micron-scale sugar gradients in the honeybee gut.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Biogeographic and Habitat-Associated Variation in the Gut Microbiota of the Stingless BeeInsects · 2026Article
- Mycotoxins as an Underestimated Honeybee Stressor: Aflatoxin, Contaminated Pollen, and Colony-Level Risk.Biology · 2026Review
- Environmental microbial extracts for longitudinal studies of gut microbiome assembly and maintenance.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- From diet to function: using synthetic microbial communities to map gut microbial interactions.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- Article
- A defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Bacterial supplementation shapes honey bee gut microbiota and host metabolism under controlled and field conditions.mSystems · 2026Article
- Conserved gut microbiomes with cross-species spillover between sympatric Neotropical stingless bees and honey bees.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- When Small Meets Smaller: Immune Modulation and Virulence Strategies in Insect-Bacteria Interactions.Insects · 2026Review
- Contrasting Toxicity Classes Differentially Affect Gut Microbiota Composition in Honey Bees.Insects · 2026Article
- Environment and Pollen Diversity Differentially Affect the Gut Microbiomes of Introduced Honeybees and Bumblebees.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Comprehension of the age-dependent gut and brain interaction of honey bee workers by integration of multi omics approaches.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- In Vivo and In Vitro Evaluation of Probiotic and Postbiotic Strategies Against Foulbrood in Honeybees.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2026Article
- Functional Genomics and Enzymatic Diversity of Gut Bacteria in Apis mellifera: A Multi-Approach Study from India.Current microbiology · 2026Article
- In silico analysis and comparison of the metabolic capabilities of different organisms by reducing metabolic complexity.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Gut microbiota-derived butyrate primes systemic immunity in honey bees by mediating lipid metabolic reprogramming.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Priority effects drive strain-level community composition of honeybee gut microbiota.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Gut microbiome convergence and functional adaptation underlie the evolution of predation in stink bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae).Microbiome · 2026Article
162 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is presently unclear how much individual community members contribute to the overall metabolic output of a gut microbiota. To address this question, we used the honey bee, which harbors a relatively simple and remarkably conserved gut microbiota with striking parallels to the mammalian system and importance for bee health. Using untargeted metabolomics, we profiled metabolic changes in gnotobiotic bees that were colonized with the complete microbiota reconstituted from cultured strains. We then determined the contribution of individual community members in mono-colonized bees and recapitulated our findings using in vitro cultures. Our results show that the honey bee gut microbiota utilizes a wide range of pollen-derived substrates, including flavonoids and outer pollen wall components, suggesting a key role for degradation of recalcitrant secondary plant metabolites and pollen digestion. In turn, multiple species were responsible for the accumulation of organic acids and aromatic compound degradation intermediates. Moreover, a specific gut symbiont, Bifidobacterium asteroides, stimulated the production of host hormones known to impact bee development. While we found evidence for cross-feeding interactions, approximately 80% of the identified metabolic changes were also observed in mono-colonized bees, with Lactobacilli being responsible for the largest share of the metabolic output. These results show that, despite prolonged evolutionary associations, honey bee gut bacteria can independently establish and metabolize a wide range of compounds in the gut. Our study reveals diverse bacterial functions that are likely to contribute to bee health and provide fundamental insights into how metabolic activities are partitioned within gut communities.
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