Functionally Structured Genomes in Lactobacillus kunkeei Colonizing the Honey Crop and Food Products of Honeybees and Stingless Bees.
Lactobacillus kunkeei is the most abundant bacterial species in the honey crop and food products of honeybees. The 16S rRNA genes of strains isolated from different bee species are nearly identical in sequence and therefore inadequate as markers for studies of co-evolutionary patterns. Here, we have compared the 1.5 Mb genomes of ten L. kunkeei strains isolated from all recognized Apis species and