Impacts of Apis cerana gut microbes on Nosema ceranae proliferation in Apis mellifera

Abstract

The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem including both beneficial and harmful microbes, which is essential for the metabolism, health and immunity of the host. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for diseases of altered intestinal microbiota. Nosema ceranae, a parasitic fungus in intestinal epithelial cells, destroys the honey bee's gut integrity. This study provided the first report that the number of spores was significantly lower in the native host (Asian honey bee) compared with the novel host (European honey bee). The treatment effect of FMT was denoted by feeding the gut tissue solution from the original host to the new host. The results showed that FMT did not significantly decrease the spore load but enhanced the expression levels of immune genes in the Toll pathway. Our data confirmed that the native host inhibits N. ceranae proliferation. Our data suggest microbes of the native host could be an alternative approach to treat the parasite in the novel host.

Keywords:

• Fecal microbiota transplantation
• Nosema ceranae
• immune system
• Apis cerana
• Apis mellifera

Data accessibility

All the data generated and used in our study are included in the electronic supplementary material: table S1 includes the spore inoculation quantity and food type, table S2 includes the primer sequence of 22 immune genes and two reference genes, table S3 includes the spore loads in natural condition, table S4 includes the spore loads by treatment, table S5 includes the average expression level of 22 immune-related genes in each group and table S6 includes the expression level of 22 immune-related genes in each honey bee.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Zhenxiu Zeng for her help in bee breeding and management. We are grateful for the helpful and constructive comments of our anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

We have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China (grant no. 32060778), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province, China (grant no. 20192BAB214022) and the initiation funding of Jiangxi Agricultural University, China (grant no. 050014/923230722).