The gut microbiota of social bees is relatively simple and dominated by a set of core taxa found consistently in individuals around the world. Yet, variation remains and can affect host health. We characterized individual- and regional-scale variation in honeybee (Apis mellifera) gut microbiota from 64 colonies in North-West England by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and asked whether microbiota were influenced by host genotype and landscape composition. We also characterized the genotypes of individual bees and the land cover surrounding each colony. The literature-defined core taxa dominated across the region despite the varied environments. However, there was variation in the relative abundance of core taxa, and colony membership explained much of this variation. Individuals from more genetically diverse colonies had more diverse microbiotas, but individual genetic diversity did not influence gut microbial diversity. There were weak trends for colonies in more similar landscapes to have more similar microbiota, and for bees from more urban landscapes to have less diverse microbiota. To our knowledge, this is the first report for any species that the gut bacterial communities of individuals are influenced by the genotypes of others in the population.

中文翻译：

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蜜蜂群体的遗传多样性预测个体群体成员的肠道细菌多样性

群居蜜蜂的肠道微生物群相对简单，由一组在世界各地的个体中一致发现的核心分类群主导。然而，变异仍然存在并会影响宿主健康。我们描述了蜜蜂 ( Apis mellifera)个体和区域尺度的变异) 通过对 16S rRNA 基因的 V4 区域进行测序，研究来自英格兰西北部 64 个菌落的肠道微生物群，并询问微生物群是否受宿主基因型和景观组成的影响。我们还对个体蜜蜂的基因型和每个蜂群周围的土地覆盖进行了表征。尽管环境各不相同，但文献定义的核心分类群在整个地区占主导地位。然而，核心类群的相对丰度存在差异，而群体成员身份在很大程度上解释了这种差异。来自遗传多样性更高的菌落的个体具有更多样化的微生物群，但个体遗传多样性并不影响肠道微生物多样性。更相似景观中的蜂群具有更相似的微生物群，而来自更多城市景观的蜜蜂则具有更少多样性的微生物群。据我们所知，