Environmentally acquired gut-associated bacteria are not critical for growth and survival in a solitary bee, Megachile rotundata

Social bees have been extensively studied for their gut microbial functions, but the significance of the gut microbiota in solitary bees remain less explored. Solitary bee, Megachile rotundata females provision their offspring with pollen from various plant species, harboring a diverse microbial community that colonizes larvae guts.​ The Apilactobacillus is the most abundant microbe, but evidence concerning the effects of Apilactobacillus and ​other provision microbes on growth and survival ​are ​lacking. We ​hypothesized that the presence of Apilactobacillus in abundance would enhance larval and prepupal development, weight, and survival, while the absence of intact microbial communities was expected to have a negative impact on bee fitness. We reared larvae on pollen provisions with naturally collected microbial communities (Natural pollen) or devoid of microbial communities (Sterile pollen). We also assessed the impact of introducing Apilactobacillus micheneri by adding it to both ty..., , , # Microbiome Megachile rotundata

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm90](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkm90)

## Legends in the data: (N), natural pollen with added A. micheneri (NAm), Sterile pollen (S), sterile pollen with A. micheneri (Sam), and natural pollen with an antibacterial cocktail (AC).

All .qzv file must be downloaded and uploaded to [https://view.qiime2.org/ ](https://view.qiime2.org/) 

16Staxabarplots_clean2.qzv : Relative abundances of the bacteria presented in Megachile rotundata larvae after feeding on treated pollen. Treatments were: natural pollen (N), natural pollen with added A. micheneri (NL), Sterile pollen (S), sterile pollen with A. micheneri (SL), and natural pollen with an antibacterial cocktail (AB).

demux-full_(2).qzv file represent Demultiplexed sequence counts summary

stats-dada2.qzv file represents filtered, denoised, merged and non chimeric reads

16s_MAPs_GB.tsv represents barcode sequences used for sequencing

alpha_rarefaction3.qzv r...