Bumblebees play an important ecological economic role as pollinators in natureand agriculture.For reasons of biosecurity,many countries promote the cultivation of na-tive bumblebee species for crop pollination instead...Bumblebees play an important ecological economic role as pollinators in natureand agriculture.For reasons of biosecurity,many countries promote the cultivation of na-tive bumblebee species for crop pollination instead of importing“alien”species.In SouthChina,a few bumblebee species are considered useful in this way,particularly,Bombusatripes,Bombus bicoloratus and Bombus breviceps.However,whether they are suitablefor artificial rearing and forming healthy colonies for pollination,remains unknown.Inthis project,queens from the 3 native species of Guizhou Province were collected andcolonies were started under standardized conditions.The colonies were scored based on19 parameters,including the stage of colony development,number and weight of off-spring,and diet consumed.The data revealed that B.breviceps had the best performance,produced more workers and consumed the smallest diet.Next,we performed 16S rDNAsequencing of the bacterial communities found in the guts of offspring workers,and thena correlation analysis between colony performance and gut bacteria was conducted.Here,B.breviceps showed the highest diversity in gut bacterial composition,dominated by thebacteria Gilliamella,Snodgrassella,Enterobacter,and Lactobacillus Firm5.The higherthe abundance of Snodgrassella,the better the performance of the colony in the founda-tion stage,and later Lactobacillus Firm5,Apibacter and Bifidobacterium were beneficialduring the stages of rapid growth and colony decline.Although we do not understand allof the interactions yet,these correlations explain why B.breviceps demonstrated bettercolony performance.Our data provide valuable information for breeding local Bombusspecies and will contribute to developing strong colonies for crop pollination.展开更多
基金wasfunded by a project of the Planting Management Depart-ment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs(152307023)the Science and Technology Programof Qiandongnan Prefecture(Qiandongnan[2021]07).
文摘Bumblebees play an important ecological economic role as pollinators in natureand agriculture.For reasons of biosecurity,many countries promote the cultivation of na-tive bumblebee species for crop pollination instead of importing“alien”species.In SouthChina,a few bumblebee species are considered useful in this way,particularly,Bombusatripes,Bombus bicoloratus and Bombus breviceps.However,whether they are suitablefor artificial rearing and forming healthy colonies for pollination,remains unknown.Inthis project,queens from the 3 native species of Guizhou Province were collected andcolonies were started under standardized conditions.The colonies were scored based on19 parameters,including the stage of colony development,number and weight of off-spring,and diet consumed.The data revealed that B.breviceps had the best performance,produced more workers and consumed the smallest diet.Next,we performed 16S rDNAsequencing of the bacterial communities found in the guts of offspring workers,and thena correlation analysis between colony performance and gut bacteria was conducted.Here,B.breviceps showed the highest diversity in gut bacterial composition,dominated by thebacteria Gilliamella,Snodgrassella,Enterobacter,and Lactobacillus Firm5.The higherthe abundance of Snodgrassella,the better the performance of the colony in the founda-tion stage,and later Lactobacillus Firm5,Apibacter and Bifidobacterium were beneficialduring the stages of rapid growth and colony decline.Although we do not understand allof the interactions yet,these correlations explain why B.breviceps demonstrated bettercolony performance.Our data provide valuable information for breeding local Bombusspecies and will contribute to developing strong colonies for crop pollination.
