A defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne
- 2Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- 3Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- 4Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne
Abstract
Gut microbiota across animals have been shown to influence host cognition and behavior. However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive effects are driven by specific bacterial species or arise from community-level interactions. Here, we leveraged the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) as a model system, which harbors a simple and well-characterized gut microbiota that is experimentally tractable and has been previously shown to impact host cognition. We established a defined bacterial community—composed of core members of the honey bee gut microbiota. Gnotobiotic bee experiments with the full community, communities missing individual members, or individual members showed that only the full community enhanced honey bees’ performances in odor discrimination learning and short-term memory compared to microbiota-deprived bees. Metabolomic analyses identified several metabolites associated with learning success that mapped to pathways modulated by microbial colonization, including tryptophan metabolism, nucleoside metabolism, and lysine degradation. However, many of these metabolites were not altered by removing individual members from the full microbial community. This suggests that microbiota-mediated improvements in cognition are emergent properties of the community as a whole, rather than the result of individual metabolites or specific bacterial taxa acting alone. Our findings support a systems-level view of the microbiome, suggesting that understanding and manipulating host development, particularly in relation to brain function, should prioritize microbial community function (e.g., metabolic pathways) over taxonomic composition alone.
Related
- Intestinal microbiota-associated LysoPC(16:0) promotes endometriosis via PPARγ-mediated M2 macrophage polarization and IL-10 secretion
- Microbiota-derived metabolite signatures in Alzheimer’s disease across the cognitive aging continuum: a human-focused systematic review and evidence-weighted knowledge graph
- Serum ω-3 Fatty Acids and Cognitive Domains in Community-Dwelling Older Adults from the NuAge Study: Exploring the Associations with Other Fatty Acids and Sex
- Effects of feed intake-regulated nutritional compensation strategies on growth performance, blood indices, and rumen microbiota of Gangba sheep
- Synthetic microbial community promotes seedling growth of Chinese fir via dissolving phosphorus and modifying rhizosphere microbial community
BibTeX
@article{cabirol2026defined,
title = {{A defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees}},
author = {Amélie Cabirol and Andrew Quinn and Julie Schafer and Nicolas Neuschwander and Lucie Kesner and Joanito Liberti and Philipp Engel},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2608600123},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05762902v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees
AU - Amélie Cabirol
AU - Andrew Quinn
AU - Julie Schafer
AU - Nicolas Neuschwander
AU - Lucie Kesner
AU - Joanito Liberti
AU - Philipp Engel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/20
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2608600123
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05762902v1
AB - Gut microbiota across animals have been shown to influence host cognition and behavior. However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive effects are driven by specific bacterial species or arise from community-level interactions. Here, we leveraged the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) as a model system, which harbors a simple and well-characterized gut microbiota that is experimentally tractable and has been previously shown to impact host cognition. We established a defined bacterial community—composed of core members of the honey bee gut microbiota. Gnotobiotic bee experiments with the full community, communities missing individual members, or individual members showed that only the full community enhanced honey bees’ performances in odor discrimination learning and short-term memory compared to microbiota-deprived bees. Metabolomic analyses identified several metabolites associated with learning success that mapped to pathways modulated by microbial colonization, including tryptophan metabolism, nucleoside metabolism, and lysine degradation. However, many of these metabolites were not altered by removing individual members from the full microbial community. This suggests that microbiota-mediated improvements in cognition are emergent properties of the community as a whole, rather than the result of individual metabolites or specific bacterial taxa acting alone. Our findings support a systems-level view of the microbiome, suggesting that understanding and manipulating host development, particularly in relation to brain function, should prioritize microbial community function (e.g., metabolic pathways) over taxonomic composition alone.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -