Bees acquire carbohydrates from nectar and lipids; and amino acids from pollen, which also
contains polysaccharides including cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin. These potential …

The honey bee, the world's most important agricultural pollinator, relies exclusively on plant‐
derived foods for nutrition. Nectar and pollen collected by honey bees are processed and …

It is presently unclear how much individual community members contribute to the overall
metabolic output of a gut microbiota. To address this question, we used the honey bee …

Social bees harbor a simple and specialized microbiota that is spatially organized into
different gut compartments. Recent results on the potential involvement of bee gut …

Most bacterial species encompass strains with vastly different gene content. Strain diversity
in microbial communities is therefore considered to be of functional importance. Yet little is …

Highlights•Honey bees harbor a simple gut microbiota that is experimentally tractable.•The
gut microbiota increases body weight gain and confers pathogen resistance.•Fermentation …

Animals living in social communities typically harbor a characteristic gut microbiota
important for nutrition and pathogen defense. Accordingly, in the gut of the honey bee, Apis …

Highlights•Honey bee adult workers contain characteristic communities of bacteria in their
guts.•Eight main species clusters are acquired within hives by new adults and colonize …

Carbohydrate‐active enzymes play an important role in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) due
to its dietary specialization on plant‐based nutrition. Secretory glycoside hydrolases (GHs) …

Ecological processes underlying bacterial coexistence in the gut are not well understood.
Here, we disentangled the effect of the host and the diet on the coexistence of four closely …