BSP-5-7 Sun Jan 3 18:00 – 18:15 A feature-based analysis of Bombus gut microbiomes and C. bombi infection Young, M*; Lee, J; Just, F; Angelini, D; Colby College; Colby College; Colby College; Colby College mgyoun21@colby.edu
Champions of generalist pollination, bumblebees are remarkable for their ability to maintain a high foraging efficiency on a wide range of floral resources. Unfortunately, their once ubiquitous range is in a state of worldwide decline. Particularly disturbing is the clear importance of insect pollinators to world agriculture and our lack of replacement for their essential service. Much of recent Bombus research has focused on the importance of the microbiome community to host health. Such metataxonomic studies have uncovered sets of so called ‘core microbiota’ and revealed links between the abundance of these taxa and infection by pathogenic microbes. In particular, these studies have centered on the conclusion that the relative abundance of core microbiota is negatively associated with infection by Crithidia bombi, a trypanosomal parasite of bumblebees. Although informative in their own right, broader patterns of microbiome structure are lost in analyses focused around just a few taxa. To this end, methods of microbiome clustering, or ‘enterotyping’ have been developed in studies of human gut samples, finding distinct and stratified microbiome configurations. In this study, we present an ongoing analysis of wild-caught Bombus microbiomes. Our data was collected across the state of Maine and spans the summers of 2017-2019. Using a feature-based approach, we find distinct microbiome clusters, or enterotypes within our dataset, showing relationships with C. bombi infection. In addition, we explore the breakdown of sample metadata across our microbiome feature space, in attempt to elucidate patterns of pathogenesis on the landscape of wild bees.