A Metagenomics approach in analyzing the gut symbionts of Tetragonula species in the Bicol Region, Philippines

The study aims to inspect the gut microbial ecology of stingless bees from the Bicol Region of the Philippines. Similar to their cousins the honey bee and bumble bees, stingless bees are significant members of an ecosystem that promote pollination and propagation of plants. A next generation sequencing - metagenomics approached was taken for a more comprehensive and straightforward approach in obtaining the objective. Metagenomics analysis pipelines of QIIME2 and Mothur ran accessing both the GreenGenes and SILVA databases were used to identify taxonomic identifications of the OTUs obtained from the run.