Abstract Detail

Symbioses: Plant, Animal, and Microbe Interactions

Puppo, Pamela [1], Martins, Filipa [2], Thompson, Madeline [3], Ferguson, Beth [4], Rinehart, Joseph [5], Bowsher, Julia [6], Greenlee, Kendra [7], Prasifka, Jarrad [4].

Diversity of plants foraged by two solitary wild bees.

Pollination is essential for the production of fruits and seeds. In fact, 80% of wild plant species and 75% of crops depend on insects for pollination. In the US alone, 130 agricultural crops benefit from insect pollination in the value of $27 billion. In this talk I will focus on two crops, sunflower (Helianthus annus L., Asteraceae) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L., Fabaceae) and two solitary wild bees that are “specialist” pollinators of each, long-horned bees (Melissodes agilis and M. trinodis, Apidae) and the alfalfa leaf-cutter bee (Megachile rotundata, Megachilidae). Using pollen collected from the body or nests of the bees, we look at the diversity of plants that are visited, and potentially pollinated by them. For this, we used a metabarcoding approach to amplify a total of three genes, rbcL, ITS2, and trnL to identify the provenance of the pollen. Our results show that in both cases, despite the bees having a strong preference for their target plant species (sunflower or alfalfa), bees collect pollen from other plants as well, even from different families. This study contributes much-needed knowledge of the pollination services offered by wild bees and provides relevant information that might be used to improve the cultivation of crops in a way that maximizes crop production and yield.

1 - Marshall University, Biological Sciences, 350 Science Building, One John Marshall Drive, Huntington, WV, 25755, United States
2 - CIBIO, University of Porto, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, nº 7, Vairao, 4485-661, Portugal
3 - Marshall University, Biological Sciences, 350 Science Building, One John Marshall Drive, Huntington, West Virginia, 25755, United States
4 - USDA-ARS, 1616 Albrecht Blvd N, Fargo, ND, 58102, USA
5 - USDA-ARS, 1605 Albrecht Blvd N, Fargo, ND, 58102, USA
6 - North Dakota State University, Biological Sciences, 1340 Bolley Drive, 201 Stevens Hall, Fargo, ND, 58102, USA
7 - North Dakota State University, 1340 Bolley Drive, 201 Stevens Hall, Fargo, ND, 58102, United States

Keywords:
Pollination
Crops
sunflower
alfalfa
Bees.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: SYM1002
Abstract ID:590
Candidate for Awards:None