Diversity and community structure of intestinal cultivable bacteria in adult worker-bee

Abstract:

[Objective] In order to identify the diversity and community structure of the cultivable bacteria inhabiting the intestinal tract in worker adults of honeybee from herlthy Apis mellifera ligustica and Apis cerana cerana Fabricius populations. [Methods] 16S rRNA gene PCR-DGGE (Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) molecular methods was employed to study the bacterial diversity. In addition, the cultivable bacteria were identified by colony morphology, physiological and biochemical characteristics tests. [Results] A total of 200 culturable bacteria from aboved two populations were classified into 18 unique phylotypes. All sequenced bacteria strains were grouped into three families: Enterobacteriaceae, Vibrionaceae and Enterococcaceae. The Enterobacteriaceae was dominated in all the populations. The closely related sequences (>97% sequence similarity) which had been retrieved from culturable bacteria of two populations were grouped as one common species. We identified the cultivable bacteria: eight strains of bacteria as Enterobacter, one strain of Klebsiella, two strains of Enterococcus, and one strain of Aeromonas. [Conclusion] The present study significantly contributes to the available information on bacterial isolates from worker adults of honeybee.