The Canadian Bee Gut Project
The Canadian Bee Gut Project
Closeup picture of single honeybee on blue flower within a field

Publications and Projects on the Go

The Canadian Bee Gut Project is a cross-disciplinary team working to address the underlying ecology of bee-associated microbial communities, to ensure a sustainable future.

OUR GOALS:

  • coordinate a nationwide sampling of honeybees from diverse commercial Canadian operations and perform unbiased characterization of microbiomes to establish baseline microbiomes
  • find previously uncharacterized honeybee-associated microbes which could be used for new microbial therapeutic strategies in honeybees
  • explore the effects of varying honeybee microbiomes or microbial therapeutic strategies on honeybee social castes and behaviour

Publications from our Team Members

Picture of the BioPatty: a round, viscous liquid which acts as a probiotic in honeybees

The BioPatty: Using a novel probiotic approach to counter infection in honeybees

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Figure from "BEExact: a Metataxonomic Database Tool for High-Resolution Inference of Bee-Associated Microbial Communities". Figure depicts a stylized flow diagram of curating the BEExact metataxonomic database

BEExact: a Metataxonomic database tool for high-resolution inference of bee-associated microbial communities

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Figure from "Deteriorating microbiomes in agriculture - the unintended effects of pesticides on microbial life", depicting microbial dysbiosis in plant-soil interactions. Figure describes increasing energetic burden on plant, and decreased nutrient cycling and crop yield.

Discussing the unintended effects of pesticides on plant and honeybee microbiota

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Figure from "Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Drosophila melanogaster Immune Pathways". Depicting a graph comparing relative hydrogen peroxide levels of honey bees treated with human-associated probiotics and non-treated bees when exposed to sublethal neonicotinoid concentration.

Deleterious effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on Drosophila melanogaster immune pathways

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Stylized scanning electron micrograph of Lactobacillus spp.

Lactobacillus spp. attenuate antibiotic-induced immune and microbiota dysbiosis in honeybees

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Figure from the paper "Understanding the Effects of Sublethal Pesticide Exposure on Honey Bees: A Role for Probiotics as Mediators of Environmental Stress". Depicting bioaccumulation of pesticides in a honey bee colony from insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides from common agricultural practices.

Understanding the effects of sublethal pesticide exposure on honeybees: a role for probiotics as mediators of environmental stress

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Projects on the Go

Coming soon!