ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2022
Prospects for probiotics in social bees.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Omics Insights Into the Effects of Highbush Blueberry and Cranberry Crop Agroecosystems on Honey Bee Health and Physiology.Proteomics · 2026Article
- Biogeographic and Habitat-Associated Variation in the Gut Microbiota of the Stingless BeeInsects · 2026Article
- Symbiont-Mediated Detoxification of Xenobiotics in Honey Bees.Microbial biotechnology · 2026Review
- Host-AdaptedMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- 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
- Functional gut microbiomes enhance performance in house fly larvae.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Impact of Direct-Fed Microorganism Syrup on Honey Bee (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Synthetic Biology of Plants and Microbes for Agriculture, Environment, and Future Applications.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Priority effects drive strain-level community composition of honeybee gut microbiota.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- How "pro" are probiotics for wildlife species? Novel data, lack of evidence, and future directions.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Dietary modulation of gut microbiota and functional enzymes in savannah honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier).Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Exploring Eco-Friendly Microbial Strategies for Nosemosis Control in Honeybee.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Microbial Evolution in Allodapine Bees: Perspectives From Trophallactic, Socially Plastic Pollinators.Evolutionary applications · 2025Review
- Probiotic effects on ectoparasitic mite infestations in honey bees (Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Assessing the impact of diet formulation and age on targeted bacterial establishment in laboratory and mass-reared Mediterranean fruit fly using full-length 16S rRNA sequencing.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Testing the Effectiveness of a Commercially Sold Probiotic on Restoring the Gut Microbiota of Honey Bees: a Field Study.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2025Article
- Core symbionts, age at inoculation and diet affect colonization of the bumblebee gut by a common bacterial pathogen.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- The gut microbiome differs between hygiene-performing and non-hygiene-performing worker honey bees.Insectes sociaux · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social corbiculate bees are major pollinators. They have characteristic bacterial microbiomes associated with their hives and their guts. In honeybees and bumblebees, worker guts contain a microbiome composed of distinctive bacterial taxa shown to benefit hosts. These benefits include stimulating immune and metabolic pathways, digesting or detoxifying food, and defending against pathogens and parasites. Stressors including toxins and poor nutrition disrupt the microbiome and increase susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens. Administering probiotic bacterial strains may improve the health of individual bees and of hives, and several commercial probiotics are available for bees. However, evidence for probiotic benefits is lacking or mixed. Most bacterial species used in commercial probiotics are not native to bee guts. We present new experimental results showing that cultured strains of native bee gut bacteria colonize robustly while bacteria in a commercial probiotic do not establish in bee guts. A defined community of native bee gut bacteria resembles unperturbed native gut communities in its activation of genes for immunity and metabolism in worker bees. Although many questions remain unanswered, the development of natural probiotics for honeybees, or for commercially managed bumblebees, is a promising direction for protecting the health of managed bee colonies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Natural processes influencing pollinator health: from chemistry to landscapes'.
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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.