Asiatic honey bee-associated yeasts found in the campus of University of Indonesia, Depok, West Jaya

Abstract

Many reports from scientists in temperate countries mentioned that there are functional relationships between honey bees and their associated yeasts. However, there are only fell' reports from tropical countries and no information from Indonesia. We report yeasts associated with the Asiatic honey bee, Apis cerana Fabr., collected in the campus of University of Indonesia, Depok, West Java. The University of Indonesia has a huge campus and planted with a variety of jlowering plants. Apis cerana Fabr., is one of the common visitors of theirflowers. We examined yeasts diversity in Apis cerana foraging on two species of flowering plants, i.e. Jatropha integerrima Jacq. and Cosmos caudatus which are common plants in UI campus. We analyze thefunctional relationships between yeasts and honey bees based on the yeast community in pollen collecting bees and nectar collecting bees visiting both plant species. Thirty adult worker honey bees (collecting pollen and nectar) were captured when they foraged on those flowers. Yeasts were isolated from the intestines of bees. Molecular identification of 35 yeast isolates based on their internal transcribed spacers (ITS) regions of ribosomal DNA sequences data showed thaI they were consisted of Aureobasidium sp., Dothioraceae sp., Candida cf. apicola, Candida cf. azyma, Candida sp., Cryptococcus sp., Metschnikowia sp., Kodamaea ohmeri, and Yarrowia lipolytica. We need to complete sequence of the remaining yeast isolates fro?? both pollen and nectar collecting bees collected from two flowers to elucidate whether functional relationships between the Asiatic honey bee and its associated yeasts exist.