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Papers
20 resultsShowing papers similar to Microbiota and Its Importance in Honey Bees
ClearDeveloping Strategies to Help Bee Colony Resilience in Changing Environments
This review identified strategies for improving bee colony resilience under multiple stressors including climate change, pathogen pressure, and pesticide exposure, with a focus on the links between nutrition, gut microbiota, and immune and stress response systems. The authors highlight dietary diversity and microbiome support as practical levers for maintaining colony health.
Gut microbiota protects honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) against polystyrene microplastics exposure risks
Researchers found that honey bees with intact gut microbiota were significantly more resilient to polystyrene microplastic exposure than bees with disrupted gut communities. The gut microbiota helped reduce oxidative stress and maintained immune function in bees exposed to microplastics. The study suggests that a healthy gut microbiome may serve as a natural defense mechanism against the harmful effects of microplastic ingestion in pollinators.
How Environmental and Ecological Stressors Reprogram Honey Bee Chemistry Through the Microbiome–Metabolome Axis
Researchers reviewed how major environmental stressors — including pesticides, pathogens, nutritional imbalance, and contaminants — disrupt the honey bee gut microbiome-metabolome axis, finding recurring patterns of functional dysbiosis such as impaired energy metabolism and weakened immune regulation that can scale up to threaten colony resilience.
The Gut Microbiome Associated to Honeybees and Waste-reducing Insects
This review examined the gut microbiomes of honeybees and insects that consume organic waste including plastic-contaminated food, finding that gut bacteria play key roles in digestion and immunity. Some insect gut bacteria are being studied for their potential to biodegrade plastics, making this a relevant intersection of microbiology and plastic pollution research.
Biotic and abiotic stresses on honeybee health
This review covers the many threats facing honeybee health, including parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and emerging pollutants like microplastics. Microplastics have been found in bee habitats and can be ingested during foraging, potentially affecting bee health and colony survival. Since honeybees are essential crop pollinators, threats to their health from microplastic pollution could indirectly impact human food production.
The Honey Bee Apis mellifera: An Insect at the Interface between Human and Ecosystem Health
This review provides an updated overview of the many ways honey bees benefit both human societies and natural ecosystems, from pollinating crops and wild plants to producing honey and serving as environmental monitors. Researchers highlight the bee's role as a bioindicator species that can reveal pollution levels, including microplastic contamination, in the environment. The study underscores how threats to honey bee health, including exposure to environmental pollutants, can have cascading effects on food security and biodiversity.
Bees and Microplastic Studies: A Systematic Review
This systematic review of 33 studies found that microplastic research involving bees is still in its early stages, with evidence suggesting microplastics can alter bee gut microbiota and impair immune function. Given that compromised bee health threatens pollination services and broader ecosystem stability, the review calls for more primary studies on this understudied topic.
Microplastics comprehensive review: Impact on honey bee, occurrence in honey and health risk evaluation
This systematic review examines how microplastics contaminate honey through bees and their environment. The findings show that bees accumulate microplastics from polluted air, water, and soil, which can then end up in honey — a product many people consume for its health benefits.
Influence of Age of Infection on the Gut Microbiota in Worker Honey Bees (Apis mellifera iberiensis) Experimentally Infected with Nosema ceranae
Researchers studied how infection with the gut parasite Nosema ceranae affects the microbiome of honey bees at different ages. The study found that infected bees, especially those infected shortly after emerging, showed significant shifts in their gut bacteria populations, suggesting that both age and infection timing play important roles in how bee gut health is disrupted.
Polystyrene microplastics reduce honeybee survival by disrupting gut microbiota and metabolism
Honeybees exposed to polystyrene microplastics at environmentally realistic concentrations showed reduced survival rates, damaged gut walls, and disrupted gut bacteria and metabolism. The microplastics accumulated in the bees' guts, causing oxidative stress and shifting the microbial community toward harmful species. Since honeybees are essential pollinators for many food crops, microplastic threats to bee health could have indirect consequences for agriculture and human food security.
Nano- and micro-polystyrene plastics disturb gut microbiota and intestinal immune system in honeybee.
Honeybees orally exposed to polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics showed disrupted gut microbiota and impaired intestinal immune function, with nanoplastics causing greater effects than microplastics. Since honeybees are critical pollinators for food production, microplastic contamination in their environment could affect both bee health and agricultural systems.
Association of specific gut microbiota with polyethylene microplastics caused gut dysbiosis and increased susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens in honeybees
Honeybees fed polyethylene microplastics (the type used in food packaging) showed disrupted gut bacteria and became more vulnerable to disease-causing pathogens. The larger 100-micrometer particles caused the most harm, physically damaging the gut lining and displacing beneficial bacteria. This research demonstrates how microplastic contamination in the environment can weaken important pollinator species by compromising their gut health and immune defenses.
Tetracycline exposure alters key gut microbiota in Africanized honey bees ( Apis mellifera scutellata x spp.)
Researchers found that exposure to tetracycline antibiotics significantly altered gut bacteria communities in Africanized honey bees, disrupting their microbiome health. Since bees can be exposed to antibiotics through agricultural practices, the findings raise concern about antibiotic impacts on pollinator health.
Are Honey Bees at Risk from Microplastics?
This review examines whether microplastics pose a risk to honey bee populations, noting that microplastics have been detected in honey samples and on bees collected from both urban and rural areas. Researchers found that exposure to certain polymer types may affect bee health, and the study calls for more research to understand the risks of microplastic exposure to pollinators and the broader implications for ecosystem health.
Effects of different microplastic types and co-exposure on the survival of Apis mellifera ligustica (Spinola, 1806) and its associated microbial communities
Researchers fed honey bees three types of microplastics (polystyrene, polyethylene, and polymethyl methacrylate) individually and in combination, and found that all treatments significantly reduced bee survival compared to controls. The combination of all three microplastic types had the strongest negative effect, and the gut microbial community showed time- and treatment-specific shifts that may represent an initial compensatory response to maintain functional stability.
Gut microbiota analysis of the western honeybee ( Apis mellifera L.) infested with the mite Varroa destructor reveals altered bacterial and archaeal community
Researchers used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize bacterial and archaeal gut communities in adult honeybees (Apis mellifera) and larvae from Varroa destructor-infested hives, comparing healthy and mite-affected groups. They found Bombella dominated larval microbiota while Gillamella, Lactobacillaceae, and Snodgrassella dominated adults, though healthy and Varroa-affected adult groups did not differ statistically, and larvae showed enrichment of genes involved in cofactor and vitamin biosynthesis.
Exploring the risk of microplastics to pollinators: focusing on honey bees
This review summarizes research on how microplastics affect honey bees, which pollinate about 70% of the food we eat. Microplastics have been found in honey, pollen, beeswax, and bee tissues including the brain and gut, where they can impair behavior, immunity, and gut bacteria. Declining bee populations threaten food production, and microplastic pollution may be one contributing factor.
Acute and chronic effects of Titanium dioxide (TiO2) PM1 on honey bee gut microbiota under laboratory conditions
Researchers exposed honey bees to titanium dioxide PM1 particles under laboratory conditions for acute and chronic periods and found that even sublethal TiO2 exposure altered gut microbiota composition, reduced microbial diversity, and shifted metabolic activity, with potential implications for bee immune function and colony health.
Biodiversity and Challenges of Honey Bee Population in Pakistan
This review examines the biodiversity and ecological challenges facing honey bee populations in Pakistan, covering threats from habitat loss, pesticide use, disease, and climate change. The authors assess the status of native bee species and managed colonies and discuss implications for agricultural pollination services and food security in the region.
Diesel exhaust particles alter gut microbiome and gene expression in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris
Researchers exposed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) workers to sublethal doses of diesel exhaust particles and brake dust for seven days, finding that oral exposure to diesel exhaust particles significantly altered gut microbiome composition and gene expression while brake dust and airborne exposure produced no significant changes.