Hot and Bothered, Bees’ Gut Microbiome Shifts Under Thermal Stress and Pathogen Infection

Understanding bumble bee gut health is imperative as these vital pollinators are subjected to pathogenic infections and thermal stress from climate change. The gut microbiome serves as an indicator for health and fitness and indicates the types of stress. To investigate the combined effects of thermal stress and pathogenic infection on bee guts, we performed a two-by-two crossed design where Bombus impatiens workers were subjected to hot conditions, pathogenic infection, or both. Incubation groups were given 2-weeks of stress conditions, with infected bees initially inoculated with Crithidia bombi, a common bee gut parasite. We measured body size, quantified the infection intensity of C. bombi using qPCR, and defined the composition of the gut microbiome using full-length 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing on an Oxford Nanopore Technologies Mk1D. While the core gut microbiome thrived with genera such as Bombilactobacillus and Snodgrassila which were not impacted by treatment; there were notable changes in other key organisms. Asaia bogorensis spiked in control temperature infected organisms, while species of Lactobacillus were overtaken in hot temperatures by significant increases in Apilactobacillus kunkeei. Species such as Citrobacter freundii dominated in hot infected bees suggesting an increased immunocompromised state from the combined stressors impacts on bee gut health. Our novel combined effects from thermal stress and pathogenic infection strengthen existing literature and provide new directions on how to quantify the health-state of wild bees based on their gut microbiome composition. These insights enable us to better understand how bees will be further impacted in changing landscapes.