Biology: Bees produce their own food for gut bacteria

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This newly discovered mechanism may play a role in bees’ vulnerability to climate change, pesticides or new pathogens, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne (Unil) wrote in a statement.

For the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Microbiology, researchers raised bees without gut bacteria and fed them only sugar water.

Researchers examining the bacteria in bee intestines found, contrary to their expectations, the Snodgrassella alvi bacteria. This means it cannot metabolize sugar to grow. The fact that sugar colonized bee intestines even when it was the only food and no other bacteria were present initially surprised researchers. This is because gut bacteria normally feed on nutrients from food.

By measuring metabolic products in the bee intestine, scientists discovered that the bee produces various acids that are transported to the intestine, including citric acid and malic acid. If the Snodgrassella alvi bacteria were already present, bees would produce less acid.

Using specially labeled atoms, the researchers were able to prove that gut bacteria actually feed on these specially produced acids.

According to the researchers, the bees’ sensitivity may be related to this complex system of the bees’ gut microbiome. “We already know that contact with the herbicide glyphosate makes bees more susceptible to pathogens and reduces the frequency of S. alvi in ​​the gut,” study leader Andrew Quinn from Unil said in a statement. For this reason, researchers want to examine the gut microbiome of bees in more detail in future studies. (SDA)

Source : Blick