Sharing the work | Nature Reviews Microbiology

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe The microbial gut communities of social bees are dominated by five bacterial groups. Bees feed on pollen, which contains diverse

polysaccharides. Moran and colleagues analysed the genomes of bacterial isolates from honey bees and bumble bees and used transcriptomic and metabolomic experiments to investigate the

ability of individual members of the gut microbiota to digest polysaccharides. They identified _Bifidobacterium_ and _Gilliamella_ as the main degraders of hemicellulose and pectin, whereas

other gut bacterial species cannot degrade polysaccharides. Moreover, the ability to digest pollen varied between different bacterial strains as well as within and between host bee species.

Thus, strain composition within hosts may determine their metabolic capabilities. The authors suggest that core bacteria of the bee microbiota occupy distinct metabolic niches to promote

efficient substrate metabolism and their co-existence. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access Nature and

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Zheng, H. et al. Division of labor in honey bee gut microbiota for plant polysaccharide digestion. _Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA_ https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916224116 (2019) Article  PubMed

  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Reviews Microbiology http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/ Andrea Du Toit Authors * Andrea Du Toit View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Andrea Du Toit. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT

THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Du Toit, A. Sharing the work. _Nat Rev Microbiol_ 18, 62 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0319-x Download citation * Published: 16 December 2019 *

Issue Date: February 2020 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0319-x SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link

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