Taxonomic description of a Betaproteobacteria and a Gammaproteobacteria-1 from the honey bee gut
Nancy Moran's lab has worked with these two honey bee gut bugs previously, producing several prior publications. A recent paper in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology by Waldan Kwong and Nancy Moran is important, however, as it provides the official and exhaustive work necessary to formally denominate these two new species. It's also cool because they came up with some fun and worthy names for them!
The Beta, Snodgrassella alvi, is named after the American entomologist Robert Evans Snodgrass (1875-1962) whose numerous authorships include "The Anatomy of the Honeybee". The specific epithet, alvi, is Latin for 'gut of bees'. S. alvi was isolated not only from honey bees (Apis mellifera) but also from bumblebees (Bombus bimaculatus and Bombus vagrans).
The Gamma-1, Gilliamella apicola, is named in honor of the American microbiologist Martha A. Gilliam, who has worked extensively with the honey bee microbiota with interest in how these microbes can protect bees from harmful pathogens. 'Bee-dweller' is the translated Latin for the specific epithet apicola. G. apicola was isolated not only from honey bees (Apis mellifera) but also from bumblebees (Bombus bimaculatus and Bombus vagrans). In addition, Kwong and Moran determined that G. apicola-like bacteria also occur in a number of other bee species by analyzing previously identified bacteria sequences isolated from the Asian and giant honey bees (Apis cerana and Apis dorsata) and additional bumblebees (Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens). As if describing the type species for this new genus wasn't enough, G. apicola belongs to a new Order (Orbales) and Family (Orbaceae), also described here by Kwong and Moran!
There is substantial genetic diversity in these groups, with isolates from the same bee host species more closely related to one another than to similar bacteria from other bee species. This may be due to a close evolutionary history between bee host and their specific bacteria strain. Thus, distinct Gilliamella and Snodgrassella species are likely to be discerned in future research.
A link to the article published in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology is here: Kwong and Moran, 2012
Cultivation and characterization of the gut symbionts of honey bees and bumble bees: Snodgrassella alvi gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of the Neisseriaceae family of the Betaproteobacteria; and Gilliamella apicola gen. nov., sp. nov., a member of Orbaceae fam. nov., Orbales ord. nov., a sister taxon to the Enterobacteriales order of the Gammaproteobacteria
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