Honeybee Gut: Reservoir of Probiotic Bacteria

Honeybees are the most important crop pollinators that contribute significantly to agricultural productivity and profitability worldwide. Microbiota accounts for up to 1–10% of the insect’s biomass. The intestine of European Honeybees, Apis mellifera, have diverse microbiota and are known to be occupied by approximately 70% Gram-negative bacteria, 27% Gram-positive bacteria, and 1% yeast. The native microbiota of the honeybees is known to contribute to their nutrition, growth, digestion, pathogens defense, and insecticide resistance. As with other humans and animals, intestinal dysbiosis might greatly influence these insects’ health status posing a threat to their safe existence. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been discovered in abundance in the honeybee gut and are believed to be of great importance to the honeybee health. Among several symbiotic LAB species isolated from the digestive tract of honeybees, it is found that some of them have the potential to be developed as probiotics. One of the most important health benefits of probiotic LAB in honeybees is their ability to protect against several bee pathogens and contribute to honey’s antimicrobial properties. Hence, the use of probiotics in beekeeping could prevent diseases, enhance bee health, and consequently increase honey production. Although probiotic bacteria isolated from different sources could be used for honeybees, using the host bacteria, i.e., the bacteria from the honeybees’ gut microbiome community would be more desirable for their own health. In this review study, we discuss the important aspects related to Apis mellifera gut microbiome such as composition, perturbation, fermentation, and most important of all, the probiotic bacterial community, mainly LAB species residing in the gut of these insects.