The Gut Microbiota Affects the Social Network of Honeybees

Overview

Journal Nat Ecol Evol

Publisher Springer Nature

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 Aug 22

PMID 35995848

Authors

Joanito Liberti

Tomas Kay

Andrew Quinn

Lucie Kesner

Erik T Frank

Amelie Cabirol

Thomas O Richardson

Philipp Engel

Laurent Keller

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The gut microbiota influences animal neurodevelopment and behaviour but has not previously been documented to affect group-level properties of social organisms. Here, we use honeybees to probe the effect of the gut microbiota on host social behaviour. We found that the microbiota increased the rate and specialization of head-to-head interactions between bees. Microbiota colonization was associated with higher abundances of one-third of the metabolites detected in the brain, including amino acids with roles in synaptic transmission and brain energetic function. Some of these metabolites were significant predictors of the number of social interactions. Microbiota colonization also affected brain transcriptional processes related to amino acid metabolism and epigenetic modifications in a brain region involved in sensory perception. These results demonstrate that the gut microbiota modulates the emergent colony social network of honeybees and suggest changes in chromatin accessibility and amino acid biosynthesis as underlying processes.

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