The gut microbiome is recognised as playing an integral role in the health and ecology of a wide variety of animal taxa. However, the relationship between social behavioural traits and the microbial community has received little attention. Honey bees are highly social and the workers perform different behavioural tasks in the colony that cause them to be exposed to different local environments. Here we examined whether the gut microbial community composition of worker honey bees is associated with the behavioural tasks they perform, and therefore also the local environment they are exposed to. We set up five observation hives, in which all workers were matched in age and observed the behaviour of marked bees in each colony over 4 days. The gut bacterial communities of bees seen performing predominantly foraging or predominantly in nest tasks were then characterised and compared based on amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Our results show that some core members of the unique honey bee gut bacterial community are represented in different relative abundances in bees performing different behavioural tasks. The differentially represented bacterial taxa include some thought to be important in carbohydrate metabolism and transport, and also linked to bee health. The results suggest an influence of task-related local environment exposure and diet on the honey bee gut microbial community and identify focal core taxa for further functional analyses.

中文翻译：

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肠道微生物组与蜜蜂的行为任务有关

肠道微生物群被认为在各种动物分类群的健康和生态中发挥着不可或缺的作用。然而，社会行为特征与微生物群落之间的关系很少受到关注。蜜蜂具有高度的社会性，工蜂在蜂群中执行不同的行为任务，使它们暴露于不同的当地环境。在这里，我们检查了工蜂的肠道微生物群落组成是否与它们执行的行为任务有关，因此也与它们所处的当地环境有关。我们建立了五个观察蜂箱，其中所有工人年龄相匹配，并在 4 天内观察每个蜂群中标记蜜蜂的行为。然后，根据 16S rRNA 基因的扩增子测序，对主要觅食或主要从事筑巢任务的蜜蜂肠道细菌群落进行表征和比较。我们的结果表明，独特的蜜蜂肠道细菌群落的一些核心成员在执行不同行为任务的蜜蜂中以不同的相对丰度表示。差异代表的细菌分类群包括一些被认为在碳水化合物代谢和运输中很重要的细菌分类群，也与蜜蜂健康有关。结果表明与任务相关的局部环境暴露和饮食对蜜蜂肠道微生物群落的影响，并确定焦点核心分类群以进行进一步的功能分析。我们的结果表明，独特的蜜蜂肠道细菌群落的一些核心成员在执行不同行为任务的蜜蜂中以不同的相对丰度表示。差异代表的细菌分类群包括一些被认为在碳水化合物代谢和运输中很重要的细菌分类群，也与蜜蜂健康有关。结果表明与任务相关的局部环境暴露和饮食对蜜蜂肠道微生物群落的影响，并确定焦点核心分类群以进行进一步的功能分析。我们的结果表明，独特的蜜蜂肠道细菌群落的一些核心成员在执行不同行为任务的蜜蜂中以不同的相对丰度表示。差异代表的细菌分类群包括一些被认为在碳水化合物代谢和运输中很重要的细菌分类群，也与蜜蜂健康有关。结果表明与任务相关的局部环境暴露和饮食对蜜蜂肠道微生物群落的影响，并确定焦点核心分类群以进行进一步的功能分析。