Coevolution of host and gut bacteria via metabolism synergy during honeybee acclimation

Description

Our mechanistic understanding of how gut symbionts coevolve with hosts during host adaptation is limited. Honeybees, with long-term co-diversified gut bacteria, adapted to temperate climates and provide an ideal model. We reveal brown adipose-like fat synthesis via host-symbiont synergy using metagenomics and genomics, in vitro and in vivo experiments, saccharide metabolome, and transcriptome. Compared to tropical honeybees, cold-adapted honeybees possess enhanced genetic capacity for glucose, pyruvate, lipid and glucuronate production. Significantly, enriched gut bacteria Gilliamella and host-specific Lactobacillus can promote host lipogenesis and thermogenesis by providing more glucose and pyruvate. Two gut symbionts both excel in hydrolyzing β-glucan to glucose but coevolve with hosts to different extents. Gilliamella formed an intimate metabolic interaction with hosts that promotes lipogenesis with pyruvate and D-xylulose-5P, while selected Lactobacillus strains reduced specific functions and saved pyruvate to hosts. By different pathways, both bacteria restrained their population size and thus reduced competition with hosts. The highly coordinated host-symbiont metabolisms give insights into honeybee physiological adaptations to temperate climates, highlighting the diversity of host-symbiont interactions in long-term coevolutionary history.

Period	20 Jul 2025 → 24 Jul 2025
Event title	Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution (SMBE 2025), Beijing, China
Event type	Conference
Location	Beijing, ChinaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International