Journal
MICROORGANISMS
Volume 8, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms8111789
Keywords
Apis mellifera; bee bread; diversity; ecology; microbiota; pollen; yeasts
Categories
Funding
- BELSPO-BELGIAN SCIENCE POLICY contracts [BCCM C4/15/MUCL, C4/16/MUCL, C5/17/MUCL]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Pollen stored by bees undergoes a fermentation marked by the presence of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts. It results in bee bread. Past studies have singled out Starmerella (Candida) magnoliae as the most common yeast species in honey bee-stored bee bread. Starmerella species are ecological specialists with potential biotechnological value. The rarity of recent studies on yeasts in honey bees prompted us to generate new information on yeast diversity during the conversion of bee-collected pollen to bee bread. Bees and stored pollen from two apiaries in Belgium were sampled, a yeast isolation protocol was developed, yeast isolates were grouped according to their macro- and micromorphology, and representative isolates were identified using DNA sequences. Most of the 252 identified isolates belonged to the genera Starmerella, Metschnikowia, and Zygosaccharomyces. The high abundance of yeasts in fresh bee bread decreased rapidly with the storage duration. Starmerella species dominated fresh bee bread, while mostly Zygosaccharomyces members were isolated from aged bee bread. Starmerella (Candida) apis, a rarely isolated species, was the most frequent and abundant species in fresh bee bread. Yeasts from the bee's honey stomach and from pollen pellets obtained from bees hind legs were dominated by Metschnikowia species. The distinctive communities from pollen pellets over fresh bee bread to aged bee bread indicate a non-random distribution of these yeasts.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available