The gut microbiota can have profound effects on hosts, but the study of these relationships in
humans is challenging. The specialized gut microbial community of honey bees is similar to …

Lactobacillus species are found in nutrient-rich habitats associated with food, feed, plants,
animals and humans. Due to their economic importance, the metabolism, genetics and …

Host specificity is observed in gut symbionts of diverse animal lineages. But how hosts
maintain symbionts while rejecting their close relatives remains elusive. We use eusocial …

Phylosymbiosis was recently formulated to support a hypothesis-driven framework for the
characterization of a new, cross-system trend in host-associated microbiomes. Defining …

Pesticide exposure, infectious disease, and nutritional stress contribute to honey bee
mortality and a high rate of colony loss. This realization has fueled a decades-long …

Dysbiosis, defined as unhealthy shifts in bacterial community composition, can lower the
colonization resistance of the gut to intrinsic pathogens. Here, we determined the effect of …

Background Individuals that band together create new ecological opportunities for
microorganisms. In vertical transmission, theory predicts a conserved microbiota within …

As pollinators, bees are cornerstones for terrestrial ecosystem stability and key components
in agricultural productivity. All animals, including bees, are associated with a diverse …

Transmission pathways have fundamental influence on microbial symbiont persistence and
evolution. For example, the core gut microbiome of honey bees is transmitted socially and …

Honeybees ensure a key ecosystem service by pollinating many agricultural crops and wild
plants. However, in the past few decades, managed bee colonies have been declining in …