Gut microbiome evolution across honeybee species

First shotgun metagenomic dataset of Asian honeybee species. Studying gut microbiota evolution across animals is crucial for understanding the maintenance of complex symbiotic interactions but is hampered by limited high-resolution genomic data from closely related hosts. With their highly specialized gut microbiota and well-known ecology, honeybees provide tractable systems to study microbiota evolution. Using shotgun metagenomics on two hundred widely sampled honeybee workers of five different species (Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, Apis andreniformis, Apis florea), we recovered thousands of metagenome-assembled genomes, identifying many novel bacterial species. Beyond offering new insights into gut microbiota evolution, our study uncovers the functional potential of the gut microbiota of Asian honeybees, which remained underexplored despite the crucial role of these pollinators in their native ecosystem.