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Characterizing The Maternally Inherited Endosymbionts Of Solitary Bees, Abiya Saeed

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Solitary bees are important pollinators of crops, with species in the family Megachilidae (mason bees) being used for orchard pollination. Commercial movement of these bees also moves their microbiota, including bacterial endosymbionts capable of reproductive manipulation. To test for presence of these bacteria, I screened commercially available species of US orchard pollinators and locally captured solitary bees from Kentucky. I also set up mason bee boxes in five apple orchards to examine recruitment of local pollinators. I conducted 454-pyrosequencing to determine bacterial diversity within four species followed by diagnostic PCR of 30 collected species (184 individuals) to determine infection frequency …