The gut microbiota can have profound effects on hosts, but the study of these relationships in
humans is challenging. The specialized gut microbial community of honey bees is similar to …

The gut microbiota of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) offers several advantages as an
experimental system for addressing how gut communities affect their hosts and for exploring …

The highly social (eusocial) corbiculate bees, comprising the honey bees, bumble bees, and
stingless bees, are ubiquitous insect pollinators that fulfill critical roles in ecosystem services …

Animal and plant microbiomes encompass diverse microbial communities that colonize
every accessible host tissue. These microbiomes enhance host functions, contributing to …

It is presently unclear how much individual community members contribute to the overall
metabolic output of a gut microbiota. To address this question, we used the honey bee …

Nutritional symbionts play a major role in the ecology and evolution of insects. The recent
accumulation of knowledge on the identity, function, genomics, and phylogenetic …

Studies of newly emerged Apis mellifera worker bees have demonstrated that their guts are
colonized by a consistent core microbiota within several days of eclosure. We conducted …

Social bees collect carbohydrate-rich food to support their colonies, and yet, certain
carbohydrates present in their diet or produced through the breakdown of pollen are toxic to …

The structure and distribution of genomic diversity in natural microbial communities is largely
unexplored. Here, we used shotgun metagenomics to assess the diversity of the honey bee …

Highlights•Honey bees harbor a simple gut microbiota that is experimentally tractable.•The
gut microbiota increases body weight gain and confers pathogen resistance.•Fermentation …