The Microbial Communities of Different Castes within B. terrestris

Sarah Walkington, Lindsay K. Newbold, Mark Brown, Felix Wäckers, Annette Van Oystaeyen, Christopher J. van der Gast, Matthew S. Heard

Research output: Contribution to conferencePoster

Abstract

Social insects harbour some of the most distinctive and consistent gut communities in the animal kingdom, and much work on social bees, has revealed a core set of microbiota in adult workers but little is known about the other constituents of the colony – males, queens or developing stages such as larvae and pupae.

Similarly, not much is known about environmental impacts on gut microbiota. Previous work has shown that bee gut microbiota can shift when exposed to a new diet[3] suggesting microbiota is not fixed and has the capacity to
adapt to new foraging resources.

Here we investigate the gut microbiota of different castes and developing workers throughout a colony lifecycle, and how the communities assemble and
transform over time.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages1
Publication statusUnpublished - 17 Dec 2015
EventIUSSI NW Europe Section 2015 Winter Meeting - Bristol University, Life Sciences Building, Bristol, United Kingdom
Duration: 17 Dec 201518 Dec 2015

Conference

ConferenceIUSSI NW Europe Section 2015 Winter Meeting
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityBristol
Period17/12/1518/12/15

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