TY  - JOUR
A1  - Leonhardt, Sara D.
A1  - Kaltenpoth, Martin
T1  - Microbial Communities of Three Sympatric Australian Stingless Bee Species
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Bacterial symbionts of insects have received increasing attention due to their prominent role in nutrient acquisition and defense. In social bees, symbiotic bacteria can maintain colony homeostasis and fitness, and the loss or alteration of the bacterial community may be associated with the ongoing bee decline observed worldwide. However, analyses of microbiota associated with bees have been largely confined to the social honeybees (Apis mellifera) and bumblebees (Bombus spec.), revealing – among other taxa – host-specific lactic acid bacteria (LAB, genus Lactobacillus) that are not found in solitary bees. Here, we characterized the microbiota of three Australian stingless bee species (Apidae: Meliponini) of two phylogenetically distant genera (Tetragonula and Austroplebeia). Besides common plant bacteria, we find LAB in all three species, showing that LAB are shared by honeybees, bumblebees and stingless bees across geographical regions. However, while LAB of the honeybee-associated Firm4–5 clusters were present in Tetragonula, they were lacking in Austroplebeia. Instead, we found a novel clade of likely host-specific LAB in all three Australian stingless bee species which forms a sister clade to a large cluster of Halictidae-associated lactobacilli. Our findings indicate both a phylogenetic and geographical signal of host-specific LAB in stingless bees and highlight stingless bees as an interesting group to investigate the evolutionary history of the bee-LAB association.
KW  - bacteria
KW  - lactic acid bacteria
KW  - sequence alignment
KW  - insects
KW  - lactobacillus
KW  - sequence databases
KW  - honey bees
Y1  - 2014
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119341
VL  - 9
IS  - 8
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ruedenauer, Fabian A.
A1  - Wöhrle, Christine
A1  - Spaethe, Johannes
A1  - Leonhardt, Sara D.
T1  - Do honeybees (Apis mellifera) differentiate between different pollen types?
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Bees receive nectar and pollen as reward for pollinating plants. Pollen of different plant species varies widely in nutritional composition. In order to select pollen of appropriate nutritional quality, bees would benefit if they could distinguish different pollen types. Whether they rely on visual, olfactory and/or chemotactile cues to distinguish between different pollen types, has however been little studied. In this study, we examined whether and how Apis mellifera workers differentiate between almond and apple pollen. We used differential proboscis extension response conditioning with olfactory and chemotactile stimulation, in light and darkness, and in summer and winter bees. We found that honeybees were only able to differentiate between different pollen types, when they could use both chemotactile and olfactory cues. Visual cues further improved learning performance. Summer bees learned faster than winter bees. Our results thus highlight the importance of multisensory information for pollen discrimination.
KW  - pollen
KW  - bees
KW  - honey bees
KW  - conditioned response
KW  - behavioral conditioning
KW  - foraging
KW  - nutrients
KW  - sensory cues
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-177537
VL  - 13
IS  - 11
ER  -