Poster Presentation Australian Microbial Ecology Conference 2024

The Fungi Present in Australian Stingless Bee Brood Food and Pollen (#33)

Jasmin Li 1 , Kenya Fernandes 1 , Ros Gloag 1 , Dee Carter 1 , Erin Shanahan 1
  1. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Tetragonula carbonaria is the most widely managed stingless bee species in Australia. They serve an important role in the ecosystem and pollinate economically important crops. However, stingless bee populations are currently under pressure due to various factors including the use of pesticides (Toledo-Hernández et al., 2022; Schuhmann et al., 2022). While pesticides are designed to be sub-lethal to bees, they could have off-target effects which negatively impact the beneficial members of the hive mycobiota. Other stingless bee species are known to rely on fungi to provide nutrients for larval development but little is known regarding the microbes present in the pollen and brood food of Tetragonula carbonaria and their potential role in managing their health (Paludo et al., 2018; de Paula et al., 2023(. Therefore, our study aimed to identify the fungi present in the brood food and pollen of T. carbonaria. We performed ITS1 amplicon sequencing on brood food and pollen samples in 4 colonies New South Wales. Two to three samples were collected from each colony, The sequences were analysed using the DADA2 pipeline and phyloseq package in R studio. Zygosaccharomyces was the predominant genera present in both brood food and pollen. This yeast genera was previously identified as providing ergosterol to the Brazillian stingless bee species, Scaptotrigona depilis, so it can mature into an adult (Paludo et al., 2018). The prevalence of Zygosaccharomyces in T. carbonaria bee products can potentially point towards a similar relationship where fungi play a critical role in managing the health of Australian stingless bees.

  1. De Paula, G. T., Melo, W. G. D. P., Castro, I. D., Menezes, C., Paludo, C. R., Rosa, C. A., & Pupo, M. T. (2023). Further evidences of an emerging stingless bee-yeast symbiosis. Frontiers in Microbiology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1221724
  2. Schuhmann, A., Schmid, A. P., Manzer, S., Schulte, J., & Scheiner, R. (2022). Interaction of Insecticides and Fungicides in Bees. Frontiers in Insect Science, 1. https://doi.org/10.3389/finsc.2021.808335
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  4. Paludo, C. R., Menezes, C., Silva-Junior, E. A., Vollet-Neto, A., Andrade-Dominguez, A., Pishchany, G., Khadempour, L., Do Nascimento, F. S., Currie, C. R., Kolter, R., Clardy, J., & Pupo, M. T. (2018). Stingless Bee Larvae Require Fungal Steroid to Pupate. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19583-9