Deep Divergence and Genomic Diversification of Gut Symbionts of Neotropical Stingless Bees
Garance Sarton-Lohéac, Carlos Gustavo Nunes-Silva, Florent Mazel, Gilles Baud, Vincent de Bakker, Sudip Das, Yassine El Chazli, Kirsten Ellegaard, Marc Garcia‐Garcerà, Natasha Glover, Joanito Liberti, Lorena Nacif Marçal, Aiswarya Prasad, Vincent Somerville, SAGE class 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, Germán Bonilla‐Rosso, Philipp Engel
Abstract
Stingless bees are the most diverse group of the corbiculate bees and represent important pollinator species throughout the tropics and subtropics. They harbor specialized microbial communities in their gut that are related to those found in honey bees and bumblebees and that are likely important for bee health. Few bacteria have been cultured from the gut of stingless bees, which has prevented characterization of their genomic diversity and functional potential. Here, we established cultures of major members of the gut microbiotas of six stingless bee species and sequenced their genomes. We found that most stingless bee isolates belong to novel bacterial species distantly related to those found in honey bees and bumblebees and encoding similar functional capabilities. Our study offers a new perspective on the evolution of the social bee gut microbiota and presents a basis for characterizing the symbiotic relationships between gut bacteria and stingless bees.