Honeybee bacterial community across gut compartments

The gut bacterial microbiome of honeybee (Apis mellifera) was investigated to evaluate the composition and spatial organization in different gut portions. Adult foragers were collected in the late summer from experimental apiaries located at DISAFA (University of Turin, Italy). Microbiological analyses were performed on the dissected guts compartments (i.e. crop, midgut, ileum and rectum) of honeybee workers. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was used to investigate the bacterial communities associated to the gut compartments of this insect.