DNA Extraction, Analysis and Sequencing of Honey bee Intestinal Fauna

Sammanfattning: Apis mellifera, otherwise known as the common honey bee, is an incredibly important social animal. Their important role in the world makes studying them of great importance. Their stomachs can be divided into three parts, the foregut, the midgut and the hindgut. The mouth and crop are located in the foregut, the midgut encompasses the ventriculus and the hindgut is made up of the ileum and rectum. Each part of a honey bee intestine hosts a different community of bacteria that vary in proportion with age, caste and season. These microbiota are essential for a honey bees mood, development and overall health. No two authors agree completely as to what the a honey bee’s gut microbiota is. In this thesis study the intestinal tract microbiome of four bee colonies, two of which belonging to the Apis mellifera carnica subspecies and two to the Apis mellifera buckfast subspecies, were sequenced. All four are from the same region in Sweden, Uddevalla. Many issues were found during this project, including one sick colony, but through them a more thorough and guaranteed method to sequence these honey bee intestinal bacteria was developed. The results of the sequencing showed that there is indeed a major difference in these intestinal communities even in bees from the same region or from the same subspecies. A possible culprit for the diseased colony was found.