Bee gut microbes have a division of labor when it comes to metabolizing complex polysaccharides
Honey bees are invaluable pollinators—cupids of the plant world facilitating the remixing of genes in the next generation of flowering vegetation. In return for their services, bees eat plant nectar and pollen. Nectar is an easily absorbable solution of sugars. But pollen contains plant cell walls, which have complex, branching chains of polysaccharides called pectin and hemicellulose. While these two polysaccharides can yield sugar monomers, it's only with the aid of specialized bacterial enzymes. Honey bees rely on their gut microbiota to produce these enzymes to break down polysaccharides. But scientists have wondered exactly how the microbial community carries out its helpful metabolism: who's responsible for what biochemical processes?