The present work aims to investigate the midgut bacteria of
honey bee (Apis mellifera lamarckii) workers and larvae infested
with Varroa destructor. To achieve this task, uninfested and infested
honey bee larvae and workers with the parasitic mites were
obtained from natural bees apiaries in Qaliubiya Governorate,
Egypt. Aerobic bacteria were isolated from the midgut of uninfested
and infested A. mellifera on nutrient agar medium and identified
using a culture-dependent isolation along with 16S rRNA
sequences. The results revealed that both uninfested and V.
destructor infested workers and larvae harbored gut bacteria
belonging to Gamma-proteobacteria strains. The uninfested workers
contained Enterobacter cloacae and Serratia nematodiphila,
while V. destructor infested workers harbored Enterobacter
species. Uninfested larvae contained E. hormaechei and
Klebsiella variicola. V. destructor infested larvae harbored K. oxytoca
as a result of infection. We concluded that the honeybee
microbiome composition is likely to be impacted through isolates
variation by stage and diversity disruption of isolates by V.
destructor infection. |
