Antibiotics hurt bee gut and survival
Tetracycline shrinks the honeybee gut microbiome and elevates mortality after hive return.
Source
Antibiotic exposure perturbs the gut microbiota and elevates mortality in honeybees
What they did
Fed worker bees tetracycline, quantified 16S community size/composition, and tracked survival in hive vs lab recovery conditions.
What they found
Four of eight core gut species dropped; elevated mortality in treated bees; germ-free bees did not show the same antibiotic mortality spike.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Does not test every antibiotic class or all hive stressors.
Key terms
- Core gut microbiome
- Stable set of bee gut bacterial species.
- Tetracycline
- Antibiotic used in beekeeping contexts.
- Dysbiosis
- Disrupted microbial community state.
- Opportunistic pathogen
- Microbe that infects when microbiota/host defenses weaken.
- qPCR
- Quantitative PCR of bacterial load.
- Germ-free bees
- Bees lacking normal gut microbiota.
Flashcards
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Quiz yourself
Core species:
Common questions
Core species count?
Eight.
How many core taxa hit?
Four significantly affected.
Antibiotic?
Tetracycline.
Germ-free contrast?
No antibiotic mortality increase without microbiota.
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