Do honeybees shape the bacterial community composition in floral nectar?

PLoS One. 2013 Jul 3;8(7):e67556. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067556. Print 2013.

Abstract

Floral nectar is considered the most important reward animal-pollinated plants offer to attract pollinators. Here we explore whether honeybees, which act as pollinators, affect the composition of bacterial communities in the nectar. Nectar and honeybees were sampled from two plant species: Amygdalus communis and Citrus paradisi. To prevent the contact of nectar with pollinators, C. paradisi flowers were covered with net bags before blooming (covered flowers). Comparative analysis of bacterial communities in the nectar and on the honeybees was performed by the 454-pyrosequencing technique. No significant differences were found among bacterial communities in honeybees captured on the two different plant species. This resemblance may be due to the presence of dominant bacterial OTUs, closely related to the Arsenophonus genus. The bacterial communities of the nectar from the covered and uncovered C. paradisi flowers differed significantly; the bacterial communities on the honeybees differed significantly from those in the covered flowers' nectar, but not from those in the uncovered flowers' nectar. We conclude that the honeybees may introduce bacteria into the nectar and/or may be contaminated by bacteria introduced into the nectar by other sources such as other pollinators and nectar thieves.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria / classification
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Bees / physiology*
  • Flowers / microbiology*
  • Microbiota
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Nectar*
  • Plants / microbiology
  • Pollination / physiology*
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • Plant Nectar
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Associated data

  • GENBANK/AY264669
  • GENBANK/DQ508172
  • GENBANK/DQ517447
  • GENBANK/DQ517448

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF, grants 189/08 and 1094/12). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.