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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
A recent roadmap for the integration of environmental microbiotas in risk assessments under the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) remit has been published. Healthy honeybee gut microbiota has emerged as a promising avenue to protect bees against stressors. Honeybees exhibit a consistent core microbiota, and dysbiosis, as part of a multiple stressor system, may be an indicator of adverse scenarios. We therefore investigated the honeybee gut microbiota of Apis mellifera carnica workers exposed to a single concentration of the insecticide flupyradifurone (FPF, 36ppm). The laboratory trials were carried out in accordance with official protocols (OECD Nº 245). The abdomen of each bee was separated from the thorax, and DNA extraction was performed individually. Full-length 16s rRNA amplicon metagenomic was sequenced through PacBio sequel II (HiFi/CCS mode). The absolute abundance of four bacterial genera constituting the core honeybee microbiota unveiled a Lactobacillus-dominated gut in both treated and non-treated bees. Treated bees exhibited a twofold increase in the bacterial load of Snodgrassella, contrasting with a 50% reduction in the Bifidobacterium load and the complete absence of Gilliamella as compared to the untreated bees. Our findings revealed that FPF disrupted the honeybee gut microbiota. We have developed a new approach, overlooked in risk assessments studies so far, to assess the impact of pesticides bee health until now. Thus, we propose its use as a novel endpoint in pesticide risk assessments. Current risk assessments are performed in a tiered approach, i. e., moving from laboratory assays (first screening) to semi field and field studies, and require no sublethal effect assessments. We therefore advocate for the inclusion of honeybee gut microbiota dysbiosis as a sublethal effect in the first screening step of risk assessments, and as a key parameter to assess pollinator’s health.
Description
Keywords
Honey bee microbiota Pesticide risk assessements Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY::Chemical engineering::Food technology
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Rosa-Fontana, Annelise; Aguado-López, Daniel; Jabal-Uriel, Clara; Martín-Hernández, Raquel; Higes, Mariano; Pinto, M. Alice; Henriques, Dora; Tosi, Simone; Rodríguez Gomez, Juan Miguel (2024). Honeybee gut microbiota as an emerging endpoint for pesticide risk assessments. In 10th congress of Apidology. Tallin
Publisher
Eurbee10