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Beneficial Protective Role of Endogenous Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Mycotic Contamination of Honeybee Beebread

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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reveal the role of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in the beebread transformation/preservation, biochemical properties of 25 honeybee endogenous LAB strains, particularly: antifungal, proteolytic, and amylolytic activities putatively expressed in the beebread environment have been studied. Seventeen fungal strains isolated from beebread samples were identified and checked for their ability to grow on simulated beebread substrate (SBS) and then used to study mycotic propagation in the presence of LAB. Fungal strains identified as Aspergillus niger (Po1), Candida sp. (BB01), and Z. rouxii (BB02) were able to grow on SBS. Their growth was partly inhibited when co-cultured with the endogenous honeybee LAB strains studied. No proteolytic or amylolytic activities of the studied LAB were detected using pollen, casein starch based media as substrates. These findings suggest that some honeybee LAB symbionts are involved in maintaining a safe microbiological state in the host honeybee colonies by inhibiting beebread mycotic contaminations, starch, and protein predigestion in beebread by LAB is less probable. Honeybee endogenous LAB use pollen as a growth substrate and in the same time restricts fungal propagation, thus showing host beneficial action preserving larval food. This study also can have an impact on development of novel methods of pollen preservation and its processing as a food ingredient.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the major help provided by Dr. Domenico Carminati from CREA-FLC, Italy, who kindly edited the text and made important critical remarks. The author I.J. would like to express his gratitude to the Science and Technology Service of the French Embassy in Tbilisi for the fellowship allowing his PhD training in France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology & Virology, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Irakli Janashia & Nina Chanishvili

  2. FIP, UR1268, Biopolymers Interactions Assemblies, INRA, BP 71627, 44316, Nantes Cedex 3, France

    Yvan Choiset & Thomas Haertlé

  3. Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Management, Poznan University of Life Sciences, ul. Wołyńska 33, 60-637, Poznań, Poland

    Damian Jozefiak & Thomas Haertlé

  4. Université de Brest, EA 3882, Laboratoire Universitaire de Biodiversité et Ecologie Microbienne, IBSAM, ESIAB, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, 29280, Plouzané, France

    Franck Déniel & Emmanuel Coton

  5. Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Teheran, Teheran, Iran

    Ali Akbar Moosavi-Movahedi & Thomas Haertlé

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  1. Irakli Janashia
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  2. Yvan Choiset
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Correspondence to Thomas Haertlé.

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The article complies with all points of ethical standards, since it does not describe any experiments on animals or humans concerning only the development or inhibition of microbial communities.

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Janashia, I., Choiset, Y., Jozefiak, D. et al. Beneficial Protective Role of Endogenous Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Mycotic Contamination of Honeybee Beebread. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. 10, 638–646 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-017-9379-2

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