Dataset Information

Flow cytometric analysis of pollen grains collected from individual bees provides information about pollen load composition and foraging behaviour.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Understanding the species composition of pollen on pollinators has applications in agriculture, conservation and evolutionary biology. Current identification methods, including morphological analysis, cannot always discriminate taxa at the species level. Recent advances in flow cytometry techniques for pollen grains allow rapid testing of large numbers of pollen grains for DNA content, potentially providing improved species resolution.

Methods

A test was made as to whether pollen loads from single bees (honey-bees and bumble-bees) could be classified into types based on DNA content, and whether good estimates of proportions of different types could be made. An examination was also made of how readily DNA content can be used to identify specific pollen species.

Key results

The method allowed DNA contents to be quickly found for between 250 and 9391 pollen grains (750-28 173 nuclei) from individual honey-bees and between 81 and 11 512 pollen grains (243-34 537 nuclei) for bumble-bees. It was possible to identify a minimum number of pollen species on each bee and to assign proportions of each pollen type (based on DNA content) present.

Conclusions

The information provided by this technique is promising but is affected by the complexity of the pollination environment (i.e. number of flowering species present and extent of overlap in DNA content). Nevertheless, it provides a new tool for examining pollinator behaviour and between-species or cytotype pollen transfer, particularly when used in combination with other morphological, chemical or genetic techniques.

SUBMITTER: Kron P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3864728 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Flow cytometric analysis of pollen grains collected from individual bees provides information about pollen load composition and foraging behaviour.

Kron Paul P Kwok Allison A Husband Brian C BC

Annals of botany 20131114 1

<h4>Background and aims</h4>Understanding the species composition of pollen on pollinators has applications in agriculture, conservation and evolutionary biology. Current identification methods, including morphological analysis, cannot always discriminate taxa at the species level. Recent advances in flow cytometry techniques for pollen grains allow rapid testing of large numbers of pollen grains for DNA content, potentially providing improved species resolution.<h4>Methods</h4>A test was made a ...[more]

PMID: 24232381

Similar Datasets

Project description:Habitat fragmentation can have severe effects on plant pollinator interactions, for example changing the foraging behaviour of pollinators. To date, the impact of plant population size on pollen collection by pollinators has not yet been investigated. From 2008 to 2010, we monitored nine bumble bee species (Bombus campestris, Bombus hortorum s.l., Bombus hypnorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pascuorum, Bombus pratorum, Bombus soroensis, Bombus terrestris s.l., Bombus vestalis s.l.) on Vaccinium uliginosum (Ericaceae) in up to nine populations in Belgium ranging in size from 80 m(2) to over 3.1 ha. Bumble bee abundance declined with decreasing plant population size, and especially the proportion of individuals of large bumble bee species diminished in smaller populations. The most remarkable and novel observation was that bumble bees seemed to switch foraging behaviour according to population size: while they collected both pollen and nectar in large populations, they largely neglected pollen collection in small populations. This pattern was due to large bumble bee species, which seem thus to be more likely to suffer from pollen shortages in smaller habitat fragments. Comparing pollen loads of bumble bees we found that fidelity to V. uliginosum pollen did not depend on plant population size but rather on the extent shrub cover and/or openness of the site. Bumble bees collected pollen only from three plant species (V.uliginosum, Sorbus aucuparia and Cytisus scoparius). We also did not discover any pollination limitation of V. uliginosum in small populations. We conclude that habitat fragmentation might not immediately threaten the pollination of V. uliginosum, nevertheless, it provides important nectar and pollen resources for bumble bees and declining populations of this plant could have negative effects for its pollinators. The finding that large bumble bee species abandon pollen collection when plant populations become small is of interest when considering plant and bumble bee conservation.

Dataset Information

Flow cytometric analysis of pollen grains collected from individual bees provides information about pollen load composition and foraging behaviour.

Background and aims

Methods

Key results

Conclusions

Publications

Flow cytometric analysis of pollen grains collected from individual bees provides information about pollen load composition and foraging behaviour.

Similar Datasets

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