Dr Georgina Binns1, Dr Théotime Colin1, Ms Casey Forster1, A.Prof Ajay Narendra1, Dr Darsh Rathnayake1, Dr Sasha Tetu1, A.Prof Fleur Ponton1

1Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, Australia

Biography:

Georgina E. Binns recently graduated with a PhD from Macquarie University under the supervision of Prof. Mariella Herberstein. Her thesis focused on understanding variation in warning signals in Australian Amata wasp moths in the areas of behavioural ecology and evolution. She has a great interest in using historical museum specimens to answer current and future ecological questions and understanding how predator-prey interactions have shaped evolutionary relationships and predator defences.

For the past two years, Georgina has been collaborating on a co-funded project with Hort Innovation Australia to design and test probiotics on honeybees in order to increase their resistance to common hive pathogens and is particularly interested in understanding how improved gut health will affect bee pollination behaviour.

Abstract:

Honeybee health is declining globally. Threats such as pesticides, parasites and diseases cause devastating impacts on honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies, affecting honey production and agricultural pollination services. Probiotics, made from naturally occurring beneficial gut microorganisms, have health benefits when ingested. Using honeybee gut bacteria as probiotics has the potential to bolster larval health, leading to stronger immune responses to infections. Previous studies have shown that native bee gut bacteria have increased ability to colonise adult bee guts, compared to environmentally opportunistic bacterial species usually found in commercial probiotics. Here, we investigate how a combination of native and non-native bacterial probiotic species affects survival of lab-reared honeybees, compared to a community of native-only bacterial species. We grew and isolated eight native honeybee gut species, and five environmentally opportunistic bacterial species to inoculate lab-reared bee larvae in order to assess effects on survival to adulthood. As honeybee larvae shed their gut microbial community during pupation, we predict that long-term colonisation ability of probiotic species will not be as important as short-term immune responses for larvae survival. Our next steps will be to assess how these probiotic mixes affect larval response to pathogenic infections. We also comment on how important it is to deliver these treatments in a method that is broadly applicable outside of the laboratory, particularly for professional and commercial apiarists.

Disclosure of interest statement: This project is funded by Hort Innovation using the Hort Frontiers Pollination Fund research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government, as well as Macquarie University. Hort Innovation Australia is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.