Distinct gut microbiota profiles of Giant honey bee (Apis dorsata) foragers

In this study, the gut microbiome of healthy adult foragers of Apis dorsata was investigated by sequencing the V3 and V4 region in 16S rRNA gene using Illumina Miseq V2 platform. The total of 327878 reads for 16S rRNA gene of Apis dorsata were obtained after demultiplexing and 43104 (84.0 percent) reads were valid after filtering that were classified into 224 species belonging to four major phyla. The relative abundances of the bacterial isolates in A. dorsata samples were phylum Bacteroidetes (32 percent) Firmicutes (29 percent), Proteobacteria (27 percent), and Actinobacteria (12 percent), respectively. Seven beneficial bacteria were identified in the gut of A. dorsata including Lactobacillus hamster (51 percent) Bifidobacterium breve (31 percent), Olsenella profuse (7 percent), B. bifidum (6 percent), Snodgrassella alvi (2 percent), Acetonema longum (2 percent) ans Saccharibacter floricola (1percent). The presence of beneficial bacteria in the gut highlighted their role in the A. dorsata and suggested that they can be promising candidates for the development of probiotics for health improvement, infection control and disease management of honeybees.