An innovative approach uses honeybees to reveal the microbial fingerprint of cities. Researchers have found that honeybees can collect samples of microorganisms throughout cities, can be used to gain insights into the urban microbiome, can provide close-ups of the microbial landscape, and can be used to assess microbial diversity and the health of cities. The study, published in the journal "Environmental Microbiome " on March 30, provides a "snapshot" of the environment surrounding honey bee hives in the vicinity of the city, and the study found that the environment of honey bees in cities is more diverse than the environment of honey bees in the countryside. Unique genetic signatures of environmental microbes Cities host a wide variety of living species, and understanding this diverse landscape is important for urban planning and human health. However, sampling the microbial landscape in a way that covers large areas of a city is usually laborious, and can be very expensive and labor-intensive. Cities provide a variety of ecological niches and food sources for pollinators such as honey bees (Shutterstock) According to a report published on phys.org ( phys.org ), Elizabeth Hanaf and her colleagues investigated the potential of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to help collect samples of microorganisms around cities, where honey bees are known to feed on a variety of variety of plants and trees within a distance of about 1.6 kilometers (one mile) from its hives. The researchers sampled different materials from 3 beehives in New York as part of a pilot study, and found diverse genetic information, including data on environmental bacteria, because bees provide samples of microorganisms from the areas in which they forage while collecting pollen and nectar. The researchers found that an analysis of debris collected from hives in 5 cities (New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Venice, Tokyo) carried unique genetic signatures of the environmental microbes in each city, indicating that the microbes differed in the cities. For example, Venice had wood rot fungi, Melbourne had the DNA of a eucalyptus plant, and Tokyo had the DNA of a lotus plant and a type of yeast. It also contained microbes associated with the health of honey bee hives and pathogens. The discovery of bee pathogens indicates health problems in the hive. Hive debris also contains microorganisms associated with bees, likely coming from honeybee parts found in the debris. Based on 33 hive samples across the four cities, the authors found microorganisms known to bees, whose presence indicates a healthy hive. Honeybees can collect samples of microorganisms throughout cities (Shutterstock) Innovative approach The study found that urban honey bees had a greater diversity of pollen sources than those in the countryside, and that honey bees foraged on more than 60 different trees and plants in the city. This approach could provide an easier, faster and more comprehensive way to analyze the urban microbial environment than labor-intensive direct sampling methods. And if validated and improved, it could enhance urban planning, pollution/contaminant management, cell health, and even public health efforts. The results indicate potential for using this technique as a means of surveillance, but at the moment it is very preliminary and more research is still needed to determine whether this approach can effectively monitor human diseases or environmental pollution.

The researchers confirmed that hive debris collected by honey bees provides a snapshot of the microbial landscape of urban environments and can be used in conjunction with other measures to assess microbial diversity and the health of cities.

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