Life Sciences Commons^™

Effect Of Varied Macronutrient Ratios On Honey Bee Tolerance To Iapv Infection, Caitlin Lennon-Puthoff, Alex Payne, Adam Dolezal

PRECS student projects

Honey bees are killed by Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). Because this virus has no cure, it is important to lessen its impact on bees through proper nutrition. This project explores the effects of differing protein to lipid (P:L) ratios in pollen on honey bee susceptibility to this virus.

Over three trials, bees in cages were incubated for 3 days to resemble hive conditions. Two doses of IAPV (10^-3 & 10^-2) and a negative control were used, along with five P:L ratios (1.5, 2.5, 11.5, 16.5, & 21.5:1) and a sucrose-only diet. These treatment groups were combined …

Association Of Excessive Precipitation And Agricultural Land Use With Honey Bee Colony Performance, Gabriela M. Quinlan, Rufus Isaacs, Clint R. V. Otto, Autumn H. Smart, Meghan O. Milbrath

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Context From landscape variables to weather, multiple environmental factors affect honey bees and other pollinators. Detailed honey bee colony assessments in a variety of landscape and weather conditions offer the opportunity to develop a mechanistic understanding of how landscape composition, configuration, and weather are associated with colony nutrition, demography, and productivity.

Objectives Our objective was to test if weather and landscape characteristics (e.g., agricultural versus forested land use) are associated with different honey bee colony outcomes (foraged nectar mass, foraged pollen mass, pupal population size, and adult population size change).

Methods We collected detailed colony measurements on over 450 honey …

Arp2/3-Independent Wave/Scar Pathway And Class Xi Myosin Control Sperm Nuclear Migration In Flowering Plants, Mohammad F. Ali, Umma Fatema, Xiongbo Peng, Samuel W. Hacker, Daisuke Maruyama, Meng-Xiang Sun, Tomokazu Kawashima

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

After eukaryotic fertilization, gamete nuclei migrate to fuse parental genomes in order to initiate development of the next generation. In most animals, microtubules control female and male pronuclear migration in the zygote. Flowering plants, on the other hand, have evolved actin filament (F-actin)-based sperm nuclear migration systems for karyogamy. Flowering plants have also evolved a unique double-fertilization process: two female gametophytic cells, the egg and central cells, are each fertilized by a sperm cell. The molecular and cellular mechanisms of how flowering plants utilize and control F-actin for double-fertilization events are largely unknown. Using confocal microscopy live-cell imaging with a …

Sequenced-Based Paternity Analysis To Improve Breeding And Identify Self-Incompatibility Loci In Intermediate Wheatgrass (Thinopyrum Intermedium), Jared Crain, Steve Larson, Kevin Dorn, Traci Hagedorn, Lee Dehaan, Jesse Poland

Forage and Range Research Laboratory Publications

Key Message

Paternity assignment and genome-wide association analyses for fertility were applied to a Thinopyrum intermedium breeding program. A lack of progeny between combinations of parents was associated with loci near self-incompatibility genes.

Abstract

In outcrossing species such as intermediate wheatgrass (IWG, Thinopyrum intermedium), polycrossing is often used to generate novel recombinants through each cycle of selection, but it cannot track pollen-parent pedigrees and it is unknown how self-incompatibility (SI) genes may limit the number of unique crosses obtained. This study investigated the potential of using next-generation sequencing to assign paternity and identify putative SI loci in IWG. Using …

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Of Landscape Use By The Bumblebee Bombus Pauloensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae) And Its Relationship With Pollen Provisioning, Pablo Cavigliasso, Colin Phifer, Erika M. Adams, David J. Flaspohler, Gerardo P. Gennari, Julian A. Licata, Natacha P. Chacoff

Michigan Tech Publications

Understanding how bees use resources at a landscape scale is essential for developing meaningful management plans that sustain populations and the pollination services they provide. Bumblebees are important pollinators for many wild and cultivated plants, and have experienced steep population declines worldwide. Bee foraging behavior can be influenced by resource availability and bees' lifecycle stage. To better understand these relationships, we studied the habitat selection of Bombus pauloensis by tracking 17 queen bumblebees with radio telemetry in blueberry fields in Entre Ríos province, Argentina. To evaluate land use and floral resources used by bumblebees, we tracked bees before and after …

A Brief Review Of Monolecty In Bees And Benefits Of A Broadened Definition, James H. Cane

All PIRU Publications

Monolecty in bees was defined a century ago for those species that consistently collect pollen only from the same single species of floral host. Even at the time, the term was considered “a curiosity” with little biological meaning. Here, I review its multiple problems and suggest that its utility would improve if we apply the term monolecty to those bees species that use a single genus (not species) of flowering host.

Diet Analysis Reveals Pre-Historic Meals Among The Loma San Gabriel At La Cueva De Los Muertos Chiquitos, Rio Zape, Mexico (600–800 Ce), Elisa Pucu, Julia Russ, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

Coprolites have been a source of study for archeologists due to several reasons: they not only provide information on the life and nutritional habits of ancient individuals but also on their health. In this paper, we processed 10 coprolites collected at La Cueva de Los Muertos Chiquitos (600–800 CE), Rio Zape, Mexico, with acetolysis solution for pollen analysis. The number of pollen grains/gram of each coprolite sample was quantified along with the macroscopic remains of these samples. The main food item ingested by the population was maize, followed by Agave. Squash blossoms were also part of their food source …

Confusing A Pollen Grain With A Parasite Egg: An Appraisal Of “Paleoparasitological Evidence Of Pinworm (Enterobius Vermicularis) Infection In A Female Adolescent Residing In Ancient Tehran”, Morgana Camacho, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

There is often the risk of confusing pollen grains with helminth eggs from archaeological sites. Thousands to millions of pollen grains can be recovered from archaeological burial sediments that represent past ritual, medication and environment. Some pollen grain types can be similar to parasite eggs. Such a confusion is represented by the diagnosis of enterobiasis in ancient Iran. The authors of this study confused a joint-pine (Ephedra spp.) pollen grain with a pinworm egg. This paper describes the specific Ephedra pollen morphology that can be confused with pinworm eggs.

Foraging Economics Of The Hunt Bumble Bee, A Viable Pollinator For Commercial Agriculture, Abby Baur, James P. Strange, Jonathan B. Koch

All PIRU Publications

Globally, there are only five bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Bombus) species that have been successfully commercialized for agriculture. The Hunt bumble bee, Bombus huntii Green, 1860, has been recognized as a suitable pollinator of crops and has a broad distribution in western North America, making it a viable candidate for commercialization. In this study, our goal was to characterize the foraging dynamics of B. huntii female workers under open field conditions. To accomplish this goal, we monitored three B. huntii colonies over an 8-wk period in the summer of 2012 in northern Utah. Using marked bees, we studied the …

Variation In Airborne Pollen Concentrations Among Five Monitoring Locations In A Desert Urban Environment, Tanviben Y. Patel, Mark P. Buttner, David Rivas, Chad L. Cross, Dennis A. Bazylinski, Joram S. Seggev

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

The urbanization of the Las Vegas Valley has transformed this part of the Mohave Desert into a green oasis by introducing many non-native plant species, some of which are allergenic. Typically, one monitoring station is established per city to obtain pollen counts for an entire metropolitan area. However, variations in pollen concentrations could occur among different microenvironments. The objective of this study is to measure and compare pollen concentrations in five locations in Las Vegas to determine if there are significant differences between microenvironments within the city. Air samples were collected from five sites across the Las Vegas Valley over …

Temporal Variability And Geographical Origins Of Airborne Pollen Grains Concentrations From 2015 To 2018 At Saclay, France, Roland Sarda Esteve, Dominique Baisnee, Benjamin Guinot, David O'Connor, Jean-Eudes Petit, John Sodeau, Jean-Pierre Besancenot, Michel Thibaudon, Valérie Gros

Articles

The study of the origin and dispersion processes associated with airborne pollen grains are important to understand due to their impacts on health. In this context, a Hirst-type spore trap was utilized over the period 2015–2018 to monitor ambient pollen grains at Saclay, France, a receptor site influenced by both clean air masses originating from the Atlantic Ocean and polluted air masses under anticyclonic conditions. The objective of this work was to use ZeFir (a user-friendly, software tool recently-developed to investigate the geographical origin and point sources of atmospheric pollution) as a method to analyse total and allergenic airborne pollen …

Protocol For Enrichment Of The Membrane Proteome Of Mature Tomato Pollen, Puneet Paul, Palak Chaturvedi, Anida Mesihovic, Arindam Ghatak, Wolfram Weckwerth, Enrico Schleiff

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

We established and elaborated on a method to enrich the membrane proteome of mature pollen from economically relevant crop using the example of Solanum lycopersicum (tomato). To isolate the pollen protein fraction enriched in membrane proteins, a high salt concentration (750 mM of sodium chloride) was used. The membrane protein-enriched fraction was then subjected to shotgun proteomics for identification of proteins, followed by in silico analysis to annotate and classify the detected proteins.

Context-Dependent Medicinal Effects Of Anabasine And Infection-Dependent Toxicity In Bumble Bees, Evan C. Palmer-Young, Alison Hogeboom, Alexander J. Kaye, Dash Donnelly, Jonathan Andicoechea, Sara June Connon, Ian Weston, Kimberly Skyrm, Rebecca E. Irwin, Lynn S. Adler

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

Background

Floral phytochemicals are ubiquitous in nature, and can function both as antimicrobials and as insecticides. Although many phytochemicals act as toxins and deterrents to consumers, the same chemicals may counteract disease and be preferred by infected individuals. The roles of nectar and pollen phytochemicals in pollinator ecology and conservation are complex, with evidence for both toxicity and medicinal effects against parasites. However, it remains unclear how consistent the effects of phytochemicals are across different parasite lineages and environmental conditions, and whether pollinators actively self-medicate with these compounds when infected.

Approach

Here, we test effects of the nectar alkaloid anabasine, …

Palynological Investigation Of Mummified Human Remains, Karl Reinhard, Marina Milanello Do Amaral, Nicole Wall

Karl Reinhard Publications

Pollen analysis was applied to a mummified homicide victim in Nebraska, U.S.A., to determine the location of death. A control sample showed the normal ambient pollen in the garage crime scene. Ambient windborne types, common in the air of the region, dominated the control. Internal samples were analyzed from the sacrum, intestine, and diaphragm. Microfossils were recovered from the rehydrated intestine lumen. The intestinal sample was dominated by Brassica (broccoli). The sacrum sample was high in dietary types but with a showing of ambient types. The pollen from the diaphragm was dominated by ambient pollen similar to the control samples. …

Quantitative And Qualitative Nutritional Analysis Of Gvsu Managed Honey Bee Colonies, Emily Noordyke, Anne Marie Fauvel

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Managed honeybee colonies are in significant decline worldwide. The interaction between poor nutrition, pests and diseases, and pesticide use are most cited as potential culprits for the precarious state of the beekeeping industry. By evaluating food coming into the hive, conclusions can be drawn about the quality of hive location and forage availability. Pollen from an apiary with historically low honey production and poor colony health was compared to pollen from an apiary with high honey production and good colony health. Pollen was collected weekly in a 24-hour period, hive weight was monitored, and colonies were assessed for overall growth …

The Functional Extinction Of Andean Megafauna, Angela Rozas-Dávila, Bryan G. Valencia, Mark B. Bush

Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Faculty Publications

Controversy exists over the cause and timing of the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. In the tropical Andes, deglaciation and associated rapid climate change began ∼8,000 years before human arrival, providing an opportunity to separate the effects of climate change from human hunting on megafaunal extinction. We present a paleoecological record spanning the last 25,000 years from Lake Pacucha, Peru (3,100 m elevation). Fossil pollen, charcoal, diatoms, and the dung fungus Sporormiella, chronicle a two-stage megaherbivore population collapse. Sporormiella abundance, the proxy for megafaunal presence, fell sharply at ∼21,000 years ago, but rebounded prior to a permanent decline between ∼16,800 …

Muts Homolog1 Silencing Mediates Orf220 Substoichiometric Shifting And Causes Male Sterility In Brassica Juncea, Na Zhao, Xinyue Xu, Yashitola Wamboldt, Sally Ann Mackenzie, Xiaodong Yang, Zhongyuan Hu, Jinghua Yang, Mingfang Zhang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) has consistently been associated with the expression of mitochondrial open reading frames (ORFs) that arise from genomic rearrangements. Spontaneous fertility reversion in CMS has been observed in several cases, but a clear understanding of fertility reversion controlled by nuclear genetic influences has been lacking. Here, we identified spontaneous fertile revertant lines for Brassica juncea CMS cytoplasm in which the mitochondrial genome has undergone substoichiometric shifting (SSS) to suppress ORF220 copy number. We placed ORF220, with or without a mitochondrial targeting presequence, under the control of the CaMV35S and AP3 promoters in Arabidopsis to confirm that ORF220 …

Mechanosensitive Channel Msl8 Regulates Osmotic Forces During Pollen Hydration And Germination, Eric S. Hamilton, Gregory S. Jensen, Grigory Maksaev, Andrew Katims, Ashley M. Sherp, Elizabeth S. Haswell

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Pollen grains undergo dramatic changes in cellular water potential as they deliver the male germ line to female gametes, and it has been proposed that mechanosensitive ion channels may sense the resulting mechanical stress. Here, we identify and characterize MscS-like 8 (MSL8), a pollen-specific, membrane tension–gated ion channel required for pollen to survive the hypoosmotic shock of rehydration and for full male fertility. MSL8 negatively regulates pollen germination but is required for cellular integrity during germination and tube growth. MSL8 thus senses and responds to changes in membrane tension associated with pollen hydration and germination. These data further suggest that …

Testing Dose-Dependent Effects Of The Nectar Alkaloid Anabasine On Trypanosome Parasite Loads In Adult Bumble Bees, Winston E. Anthony, Evan C. Palmer-Young, Anne S. Leonard, Rebecca E. Irwin, Lynn S. Adler

Biology Department Faculty Publication Series

The impact of consuming biologically active compounds is often dose-dependent, where small quantities can be medicinal while larger doses are toxic. The consumption of plant secondary compounds can be toxic to herbivores in large doses, but can also improve survival in parasitized herbivores. In addition, recent studies have found that consuming nectar secondary compounds may decrease parasite loads in pollinators. However, the effect of compound dose on bee survival and parasite loads has not been assessed. To determine how secondary compound consumption affects survival and pathogen load in Bombus impatiens, we manipulated the presence of a common gut parasite, …

Establishing Tobacco Origin From Pollen Identification: An Approach To Resolving The Debate, Shane Williams, Shelby Hubbard, Karl Reinhard, Sérgio Augusto De Miranda Chaves

Karl Reinhard Publications

Previous research into pollen content of tobacco resulted in a debate. We address this debate and determine that pollen analysis may be able to assist with identifying geographical origin of tobacco. However, the value of any results should be assessed on a case-by-case regional basis until sufficient database information is available for an objective interpretation to be undertaken on a global basis. As a first step toward developing comparative data for South America, we analyzed a tobacco sample from Brazil in an effort to identify signature taxa from the state of Minas Gerais. We also assessed the role of honey …

Nectar Yeasts In The Tall Larkspur Delphinium Barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) And Effects On Components Of Pollinator Foraging Behavior, Robert N. Schaeffer, Cody R. Phillips, M. Catherine Duryea, Jonathan Andicoechea, Rebecca E. Irwin

Dartmouth Scholarship

Microorganisms frequently colonize the nectar of angiosperm species. Though capable of altering a suite of traits important for pollinator attraction, few studies exist that test the degree to which they mediate pollinator foraging behavior. The objective of our study was to fill this gap by assessing the abundance and diversity of yeasts associated with the perennial larkspur Delphinium barbeyi (Ranunculaceae) and testing whether their presence affected components of pollinator foraging behavior. Yeasts frequently colonized D. barbeyi nectar, populating 54–77% of flowers examined depending on site. Though common, the yeast community was species-poor, represented by a single species, Metschnikowia reukaufii. …

The Movement Ecology Of Seagrasses, Kathryn Mcmahon, Kor-Jent Van Dijk, Leonardo Ruiz-Montoya, Gary A. Kendrick, Siegfried L. Krauss, Michelle Waycott, Jennifer Verduin, Ryan Lowe, John Statton, Eloise Brown, Carlos Duarte

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A movement ecology framework is applied to enhance our understanding of the causes, mechanisms and consequences of movement in seagrasses: marine, clonal, flowering plants. Four life-history stages of seagrasses can move: pollen, sexual propagules, vegetative fragments and the spread of individuals through clonal growth. Movement occurs on the water surface, in the water column, on or in the sediment, via animal vectors and through spreading clones. A capacity for long-distance dispersal and demographic connectivity over multiple timeframes is the novel feature of the movement ecology of seagrasses with significant evolutionary and ecological consequences. The space–time movement footprint of different life-history …

Pollen Biology, Alice Cheung, Hen-Ming Wu

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars

No abstract provided.

Anthropogenic Climate Change And Allergic Diseases, James Blando, Leonard Bielory, Viann Nguyen, Rafael Diaz, Hueiwang Anna Jeng

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Climate change is expected to have an impact on various aspects of health, including mucosal areas involved in allergic inflammatory disorders that include asthma, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis and anaphylaxis. The evidence that links climate change to the exacerbation and the development of allergic disease is increasing and appears to be linked to changes in pollen seasons (duration, onset and intensity) and changes in allergen content of plants and their pollen as it relates to increased sensitization, allergenicity and exacerbations of allergic airway disease. This has significant implications for air quality and for the global food supply.

What Brown Saw And You Can Too, Philip Pearle, Brian Collett, Kenneth Bart, David Bilderback, Dara Newman, D. Scott Samuels

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A discussion of Robert Brown’s original observations of particles ejected by pollen of the plant Clarkia pulchella undergoing what is now called Brownian motion is given. We consider the nature of those particles and how he misinterpreted the Airy disk of the smallest particles to be universal organic building blocks. Relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations with a modern microscope and with a “homemade” single lens microscope similar to Brown’s are presented.

Pollen Interception By Linyphiid Spiders In A Corn Agroecosystem: Implications For Dietary Diversification And Risk-Assessment, Julie A. Peterson, Susan Romero, James D. Harwood

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Dietary diversification, including consumption of plant tissues such as pollen, can enhance the fecundity of generalist predators, resulting in improved control of pest prey. Supplemental pollen feeding has been observed in many natural enemies, including sheet-web spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae), which represent a major component of food webs in agroecosystems. Their horizontal, ground-based webs have the potential to intercept pollen grains during anthesis of crop plants, providing the opportunity for consumption of pollen to occur. In laboratory feeding trials, Frontinella communis and Tennesseellum formicum (Araneae: Linyphiidae) readily fed on pollen grains dusted on their webs, with 82 and 92% of spiders …

Functional Analysis Of Receptor-Like Kinases In Pollen-Pistil Interactions In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Mini Aggarwal

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Rac/Rop GTPases are molecular switches in plants that control the growth of polarized cells such as pollen tubes and root hairs, differentiation, development, actin dynamics, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and disease resistance. These small GTPases are activated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) that replace GDP for GTP and are referred to as RopGEFs in plants. To identify upstream components of the RopGEF regulated signaling pathways, GEF1 from Arabidopsis thaliana was used as a bait to screen a seedling cDNA library in a yeast two-hybrid system. This yielded members of a small family of the Catharanthus roseus Receptor-like …

Lap3, A Novel Plant Protein Required For Pollen Development, Is Essential For Proper Exine Formation, Anna A. Dobritsa, Shuh-Ichi Nishikawa, Daphne Preuss, Ewa Urbanczyk-Wochniak, Lloyd W. Sumner, Adam Hammond, Ann L. Carlson, Rob Swanson

Biology Faculty Publications

We isolated lap3-1 and lap3-2 mutants in ascreen for pollen that displays abnormal stigma binding.Unlike wild-type pollen, lap3-1 and lap3-2 pollen exine isthinner, weaker, and is missing some connections betweentheir roof-like tectum structures. We describe the mappingand identification of LAP3 as a novel gene that contains arepetitive motif found in b-propeller enzymes. Insertionmutations in LAP3 lead to male sterility. To investigatepossible roles for LAP3 in pollen development, we assayedthe metabolite profile of anther tissues containing developingpollen grains and found that the lap3-2 defect leadsto a broad range of metabolic changes. The largest changeswere seen in levels of a straight-chain hydrocarbon …

Nectar Secondary Compounds Affect Self-Pollen Transfer: Implications For Female And Male Reproduction, Rebecca E. Irwin, Lynn S. Adler

Dartmouth Scholarship

Pollen movement within and among plants affects inbreeding, plant fitness, and the spatial scale of genetic differentiation. Although a number of studies have assessed how plant and floral traits influence pollen movement via changes in pollinator behavior, few have explored how nectar chemical composition affects pollen transfer. As many as 55% of plants produce secondary compounds in their nectar, which is surprising given that nectar is typically thought to attract pollinators. We tested the hypothesis that nectar with secondary compounds may benefit plants by encouraging pollinators to leave plants after visiting only a few flowers, thus reducing self-pollen transfer. We …

Registros De Sedimentos Lacustres De La Vegetación Del Holoceno Y Historia Del Fuego En El Páramo De Costa Rica. (Lake-Sediment Records Of Holocene Vegetation And Fire History In The Costa Rican Páramos), Sally P Horn, Brandon L. League

Geography Publications and Other Works

We examined pollen, pteridophyte (ferns and fern-allies) spores, and charcoal in a 5.6 m long sediment core from Lago de las Morrenas 1, and charcoal in a 1.1 m long sediment core from Lago Chirripó, to reconstruct postglacial vegetation and fire history in the Chirripó páramo. Lago de las Morrenas 1, the largest lake in the Valle de las Morrenas of Chirripó National Park, is presently surrounded by treeless páramo vegetation and has apparently been so since deglaciation approximately 10,000 radiocarbon years ago. Pollen spectra suggest no pronounced changes in vegetation since ice retreat. Pollen percentages for Gramineae and other …