꿀벌은 벌목에 속하는 곤충으로 caste가 존재하는 eusocial insect이다 [1]. 꿀벌사회는 알을 낳고 봉군을 통제하는 queen과 정자를 제공하는 drone 그리고 유충을 기르거나 화분과 꿀을 모아오는 worker bee로 역할이 분담되어 있다 [2, 3]. 꿀벌은 식물의 화분과 nectar를 먹는데 먹이를 수집하는 과정에서 식물의 화분을 매개하게 된다[4]. 이를 통해 꿀벌은 견과류, 과일, 곡물 등을 포함하여 축산 동물의 사료가 되는 알팔파 등의 수분을 도와 작물 생산량과 품질을 향상시킨다 [5-8]. 또한 화분매개체로서의 역할 뿐만 아니라, 꿀, 밀납, 프로폴리스, 로열제리 등을 생산하는 곤충으로서 국내/외에서 높은 경제적 가치를 지니고 있는 산업곤충으로 여겨지고 있다 [9-11] .

             불행하게도 최근 조사에 따르면 전세계적으로 꿀벌의 숫자는 빠르게 감소하고 있다. 2006년, bee colony가 급속도로 붕괴되는 현상인 Colony Collapse Disorder(CCD)가 보고되었다 [12]. USDA와 “Bee Informed Partnership”에선 매년 양봉 농가의 winter colony loss report를 발행하는데 이에 따르면 2014-2015년 한 해에만, 40.6%의 봉군이 와해되었다고 보고하고 있고 대부분 겨울철에 집중되어 있는 것으로 보고하였다.[13] 다행히도 CCD를 일으키는 몇몇 요소가 보고되었으나, 단일 원인으로 인해 발생하지는 않는 것으로 관측하고 있다[14-23]. 봉군망실에는 다양한 원인이 지목되고 있다. 생물학적 요소로는 말벌 등의 천적류, 응애류, 영양실조, 세균, 곰팡이, 바이러스, 면역결핍등이 제시되고 있으며, 비생물학적 요소로는 기후변화, 농약살포 등이 원인으로 지목되고있다[15, 16, 23-26].

             꿀벌의 감소를 막기 위해 다양한 시도가 이뤄졌으며 전통적으로 해충 방제제나 항생제를 사용하였다. 그러나 다양한 보고에 의하면 해충 방제제나 항생제를 지속적으로 처리할 경우 장/단기적으로 봉군의 fitness를 감소시키는 부작용의 발생이 보고되고 있다[27-31]. 따라서 최근에는 probiotic또는 prebiotic을 처리하여colony fitness를 강화하는 연구가 집중적으로 수행되고 있다[32, 33]. 기존 연구결과 colony fitness 및 면역 유도가 가능한 prebiotics는 chitosan[34], resveratrol, thymol[35], vitamin C[36, 37], Abscisic acid[38], p-coumaric acid[39]가 있으며 이들은 항산화 유전자, 면역 유전자의 발현을 유도하여 바로아 응애, Nosema. spp 등이 기생하더라도 수명이 연장되는 효과가 있음이 확인되었다. 꿀벌에서 probiotics에 대한 연구는 최근 5년동안 가장 주목받는 연구 중 하나이다[33, 40, 41]. 장내 유익균은 숙주의 소화기관 내에 서식하며 면역, 대사조절 등을 조절하여 건강한 상태를 유지하도록 도우며 장내 미생물 총균의 불균형 (dysbiosis)이 일어날 경우 건강을 잃기도 한다[42]. 꿀벌 또한 장내 미생물이 colony-fitness에 영향을 끼치며 따라서 유익균의 균형을 통해 면역 유도를 통한 colony-fitness 증진을 꾀하는 접근 방식이 주목 받고 있다[33].

The bee belongs to hymenoptera and is also known as an eusocial insect with caste [1]. The honey bee society is divided into three castes containing queen that lays eggs and controls hive, drone that provides sperm, and worker bee which is take care of larvae or collects pollen and honey. Additionally, the worker bee has considered as two various types such as nurse bee and forager bee [2, 3]. Bees assist the pollination during the foraging [4]. As a result, honeybees improve the yield and quality of crops by mediating pollen from alfalfa, which is a feed for livestock animals as well as nuts, fruits and grains [5-8]. One of the other advantage of bees are regarding as a beneficial insect for producing honey, beeswax, propolis and royal jelly. On the other words, bees are undoubtedly economically valuable insect [9-11].

             According to recent reports, the number of bees is declining rapidly in the world. In 2006, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a phenomenon in which bee colony disappeared rapidly, was reported [12]. US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) provide annual colony loss reports for beekeeping farmers, reporting that 40.6% of the bee populations have been destroyed in 2014-2015, and are concentrated noticeably in winter. [13]. Recent studies have shown that the CCD is casused by various reasons, which are pointed out for disappearance [14-23]. For instance, biological factors include wasp, parasite as mite, and malnutrition, bacteria, fungi, viruses, immunodeficiency, and abiotic factors include climate change and pesticide application [15, 16, 23-26].

             Several attempts such as miticide, antibiotics and etc., have been made to prevent the decline of bee population. However, the great number of reports have been related to the occurrence of detrimental effects of when the pest control agents or antibiotics which reduce the fitness of the colony, were continually treated [27-31]. Last decade, studies have been focused on enhancing colony fitness by treatment of probiotic or prebiotic [32, 33]. Previous studies have shown that prebiotics, the candidate components to enhance colony fitness and immunity are chitosan [34], resveratrol, thymol [35], vitamin C [36, 37], Abscisic acid [38] and p-coumaric acid [39]. They induce the expression of antioxidant genes or immune-genes in bees, and it is confirmed that they have an effect on prolonging the life span even parasitized with Varroa destructor or Nosema spp. However, many researchers are focused on the usage of probiotics as bee immune stimulants during last 5 years [33, 40, 41]. Intestinal symbiotic bacteria which is live in the host's digestive organs, help maintain healthy state by controlling immunity and metabolic control. Sometimes dysbiosis can lead to loss of health [42]. Intestinal microorganisms also affect bee colony-fitness. Therefore, the approach of promoting colony-fitness through the balanced beneficial bacteria has been enticing attention [33].

출처: In silico analysis and induction patterns of antimicrobial peptides in response to Immuno-stimulant in honeybee, Apis mellifera, Park et al.

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