BACKGROUND:Widely considered probiotic organisms, Bifidobacteria are common inhabitants of the alimentary tract of animals including insects. Bifidobacteria identified from the honey bee are found in larval guts and throughout the alimentary tract, but attain their greatest abundance in the adult hind gut. To further understand the role of Bifidobacteria in honey bees, we sequenced two strains of Bifidobacterium cultured from different alimentary tract environments and life stages.RESULTS:Reflecting an oxygen-rich niche, both strains possessed catalase, peroxidase, superoxide-dismutase and respiratory chain enzymes indicative of oxidative metabolism. The strains show markedly different carbohydrate processing capabilities, with one possessing auxiliary and key enzymes of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway.CONCLUSIONS:As a result of long term co-evolution, honey bee associated Bifidobacterium may harbor considerable strain diversity reflecting adaptation to a variety of different honey bee microenvironments and hive-mediated vertical transmission between generations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/610155 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Anderson, Kirk, Johansson, Andreas, Sheehan, Tim, Mott, Brendon, Corby-Harris, Vanessa, Johnstone, Laurel, Sprissler, Ryan, Fitz, William |
| Contributors | Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, Tucson AZ 85719, USA, Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721, USA, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK, Department of Microbiology, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721, USA, Bio5 Institute, University of Arizona Genomics Core, Tucson AZ 85721, USA |
| Publisher | BioMed Central |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2013 Anderson et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) |
| Relation | http://www.gutpathogens.com/content/5/1/42 |
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