Unique honey bee (Apis mellifera) hive component-based communities as detected by a hybrid of phospholipid fatty-acid and fatty-acid methyl ester analyses.

Microbial communities (microbiomes) are associated with almost all metazoans, including the honey bee Apis mellifera. Honey bees are social insects, maintaining complex hive systems composed of a variety of integral components including bees, comb, propolis, honey, and stored pollen. Given that the different components within hives can be physically separated and are nutritionally variable, we hypothesize that unique microbial communities may occur within the different microenvironments of honey bee colonies.

Microbial community structure of leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens and refuse dumps.

Background: Leaf-cutter ants use fresh plant material to grow a mutualistic fungus that serves as the ants' primary food source. Within fungus gardens, various plant compounds are metabolized and transformed into nutrients suitable for ant consumption. This symbiotic association produces a large amount of refuse consisting primarily of partly degraded plant material.

Isolation and identification of Photobacterium phosphoreum from an unexpected niche: migrating salmon.

Six luminous bacteria were isolated from migrating salmon in the Yukon River, Alaska. All isolates were identified as Photobacterium phosphoreum. Previous studies suggest that P.

Lack of effect of beta-naphthoflavone on induction of Nramp genes in adult rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss.

Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp) genes in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were identified and characterized. The greatest mRNA level encoding these genes was in the developing ovary of rainbow trout. We evaluated the response of these genes to a certain aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonist.