Abstract

ENDOSYMBIOTIC BACTERIA OF HONEY BEE IN BIOSYNTHESIS OF FUMARIC ACID

William Jabez Osborne*, Pakezah Pattnayak, Trishna Pani, Md Saifuddin, Astha

School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore-632014, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Honey bees are a subset of bees of the genus Apis. Apitoxin is secreted by the workers and queen of honeybee. About 1 % of the world population is allergic to bee stings, but it has also shown therapeutic effects in the treatment of joint diseases and rheumatism due to its antiinflammatory and anti-coagulant properties. The present study deals with the determination of endosymbiotic bacteria from the abdomen of honey bee and the involvement of these bacteria in the biosynthesis of fumaric acid. The bacterial culture was isolated from the abdomen of honey bee. The presence of fumaric acid and propionic acid was confirmed with GC-MS for the presence of fumaric acid in the bacterial broth and abdomen of Apis mallifera. Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization showed the isolate VITPTS was closely related to Serratia marsescens. Hence forth the present study proves that the isolate obtained from the abdomen of honey bee plays a pivotal role in the biosynthesis of fumaric acid and propionic acid.

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