A cocktail of native gut bacteria promotes health and pathogen resistance in bees
Problem
Honeybees and bumblebees play a crucial role in agricultural pollination, which is essential for human food production. Unfortunately, honeybee populations have experienced significant declines in the United States and around the world over the past decade. These declines are likely due to a combination of factors, including parasites, pathogens, and nutritional shortages.
Honeybees have a unique microbiome in their gut that plays a vital role in bee health, aiding digestion, improving resistance to disease, and enabling honey production. Environmental stressors can disrupt the bee gut microbiome, making bees more susceptible to disease. The decline in bee health poses a serious threat to global food security, with many commercially important crops requiring pollination by bees. Researchers are working to develop strategies for protecting bee populations. One promising approach is to use probiotics comprised of live beneficial bacteria to restore the balance of the bee gut microbiome.
Solution
Researchers in the Moran Lab at The University of Texas at Austin have devised a novel approach to replenish the healthy microbiome of bees and bolster their resilience against disease. By employing specialized culturing and inoculation techniques, they have developed a cocktail of bacterial strains that mirror the natural bacterial species found in the honeybee gut. This innovative cocktail has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in enhancing the survival rates of adult worker bees exposed to prevalent pathogenic bacteria, contributing to an overall improvement in bee health. Their combined inoculation method and bacterial cocktail effectively restore the gut microbiome of bees, revitalizing their health.
Inventor expertise
Nancy A. Moran is a professor of biology at The University of Texas at Austin. She is an evolutionary biologist focused on the evolution of genomes in host-associated microorganisms, and her work provides significant contributions to our understanding of the biology of symbiosis. Dr. Moran has authored over 200 research papers and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
