Harnessing the Gut Microbiota of Honeybees: Unlocking Microbial Insights for Sustainable Apiculture Practices

Honeybees are major pollinators in terrestrial ecosystems, making them a vital component in sustaining the environment and agriculture worldwide. Gut associated microflora plays a crucial role in modulating bee health. Gut microbiota influences various physiological functions such as metabolism, immunity, behavior and stress response. Recently, honeybees have emerged as a model organism for studies on the core gut communities and their relation to bee health. Different bacterial strains can be introduced into the gut of gnotobiotic honeybees to assess their impact on various parameters influencing host health and well-being. Microbiota occupy a specialized niche in the gut where they play a distinctive role while balancing survival and their symbiotic relationship with the host. Gut bacteria interact with each other and foreign pathogens to maintain a microbial consortium that maintains its structural and functional consistency over time despite environmental fluctuations, known as stable gut microbiota. The stable gut microbiome plays a crucial role in various metabolic processes. In the absence of this stable gut microbiota, social interactions also get drastically impacted, underlining their role in the gut-brain axis. A stable gut microbiota also helps mitigate different stressors by activating certain genes. The current review discusses the latest research on the impact of gut microbiota and seeks to enhance the understanding of host microbiota interactions and their diverse implications for bee health.