1887

Abstract

The gut of honey bees is characterized by a stable and relatively simple community of bacteria, consisting of seven to ten phylotypes. Two closely related honey bees, (western honey bee) and (eastern honey bee), show a largely comparable occurrence of those phylotypes, but a distinct set of bacterial species and strains within each bee species. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of Ac13, a new species within the rare proteobacterial genus from Fabricius. Description of Ac13 as a new species is supported by low identity of the 16S rRNA gene sequence (97.2 %), of the average nucleotide identity based on orthologous genes (77.5 %) and digital DNA–DNA hybridization relatedness (24.7 %) to the next but far related type strain PEB0191, isolated from . Cells of Ac13 are mesophilic and have a mean length of 2–4 µm and a width of 0.5 µm. Optimal growth was achieved in anoxic conditions, whereas growth was not observed in oxic conditions and strongly reduced in microaerophilic environment. Strain Ac13 shares several features with other members of the , such as the major fatty acid profile, the respiratory quinone type and relatively low DNA G+C content, in accordance with its evolutionary relationship. Unlike , strain Ac13 is susceptible to a broad range of antibiotics, which could be indicative for an antibiotic-free bee keeping. In conclusion, we propose strain Ac13 as a novel species for which we propose the name sp. nov. with the type strain Ac13 (=NCIMB 15259=JCM 34075).

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Award 19K22295)
    • Principle Award Recipient: RyoMiyazaki
  • Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (Award JPMJER1502)
    • Principle Award Recipient: RyoMiyazaki
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License.
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2021-02-22
2024-12-14
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