Effects of protein supplement additives and Nosema ceranae on the honey bee microbiota

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different additives included in protein supplements (Beta-carotene, daucosterol, naringenin, terpinen-4, and piperine) on the gut microbiota of honey bees exposed or not to the microsporidian Nosema ceranae. Briefly, DNA was extracted from whole guts dissected from adult worker bees, followed by profiling of bacterial communities via targeted amplification of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene using the established Bakt_341F (5-CCTACGGGNGGCWGCAG-3) and Bakt_805R (5-GACTACHVGGGTATCTAATCC-3) primer set. Processing of amplicon libraries was conducted at the AAC Genomics Facility (University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada) and sequencing was performed on the MiSeq Illumina platform adapted for 2x300 bp paired-end V3 chemistry.