نبذة مختصرة : The Azores archipelago consists of nine islands with endemic bee populations belonging to the African lineage, although there is also genetic evidence of the introduction of European bees. These introductions have in all likelihood introduced pathogens like Varroa destructor (V) and Nosema ceranae (N). However, the restricted movement of bee colonies between islands has limited their spread throughout the archipelago, so that we can find islands with different combinations of these pathogens, i.e. positive (+) or negative (-) to V. destructor and/or to N. ceranae. In this work, we studied the microbiota of bees belonging to 4 islands with this different pathogen scenario to determine whether the presence of any of them has influenced the presence and/or abundance of any of the main bacterial taxa that make up the intestinal microbiota of bees. Therefore, 15 bees from 10 colonies of Pico (V+, N+), Flores (V+, N-), Terceira (V-, N+) and Santa Maria (V-, N-) were selected and pooled and the complete bacterial 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using PacBio Sequel II sequencing (HiFi/CCS mode). Preliminary results showed that bacterial taxa characteristic of the honey bee gut were found in almost all samples, with Lactobacillus, Bartonella, Bifidobacterium, and Snodgrassella being the most abundant. In the samples from Terceira, Bifidobacterium and Bartonella were less abundant than in the other islands, while Arsenophonus was more abundant. Arsenophonus was also found, although at lower abundance, on Flores and Pico and was virtually absent on Santa Maria, which interestingly is the island free of V. destructor and N. ceranae. These results provide a first characterisation of the gut microbiota of bees in geographically isolated areas such as the Azores and how pathogens such as V. destructor and N. ceranae may have influenced the gut microbiota of honey bees. ; Funded by: SBPLY/19/180501/000334; Grant PRE2018-084878; RTA2017-00004-C02-01 ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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