Microbiome research has the potential to be used as a tool to identify the social and ecological factors responsible for host-associated microbial communities in pollinator ecology. This is important because host-symbiont dynamics are known to influence host phenotype and resistance to environmental change. In this study we explored 16S rRNA microbial communities of buff-tailed bumblebees breeding in apple orchards (low-quality habitat) and oilseed rape fields (high-quality habitat). We also investigated the role of caste and development in structuring microbial communities in workers, males, queens, and young queens. We calculated Shannon’s diversity index for each individual.
Results/Conclusions
Our bacterial results reveal that 1) habitat quality did not influence the diversity of bacterial communities; 2) we also did not find any colony-level differences between bacterial communities; 3) castes significantly structured bacterial communities and their diversity. We found the highest diversity of bacterial communities in queens which significantly differed from young queens and males, while the diversity of bacterial communities of young queens and males did not differ significantly. Our results support the idea that host-symbiont dynamics influence microbiome composition in different castes in bumblebees and their social behavior.