Kämper Wiebke, Wallace Helen M, Trueman Stephen J
Functional Agrobiodiversity & Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Jun;292(2049):20250891. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0891. Epub 2025 Jun 25.
Pollen limitation occurs when insufficient pollen or the wrong pollen genotype reaches the stigma. The pollination efficiency of flower visitors to crops has been investigated, but the genotypes of crop pollen carried have rarely been identified. We developed a method that detects SNPs in the pollen carried by single bees, using a customized single allele base extension reaction (SABER) with MassARRAY to distinguish genotypes that contribute only a small fraction to a mixed-genotype pollen sample. We used this method to identify the cultivars of pollen carried by honeybees at increasing distances from a cross-pollen source in two multi-cultivar macadamia orchards, one with wide single-cultivar blocks and one with narrow single-cultivar blocks. We found that many honeybees carried exclusively self-pollen. Only 30-53% of honeybees carried cross-pollen, representing the maximum that potentially contributes to crop production in self-incompatible crops. Distance from a cross-pollen source or the orchard design did not significantly affect the percentage of honeybees carrying cross-pollen. This study demonstrates significant potential to increase the effectiveness of honeybees as pollinators. Orchards can be re-designed to interplant cross-pollen sources and maximize the number of honeybees contributing to crop production. Improving pollination effectiveness will help to alleviate the growing shortfall in the supply of beehives required for crop pollination.
当到达柱头的花粉不足或花粉基因型错误时，就会出现花粉限制。人们已经对访花昆虫对作物的授粉效率进行了研究，但携带的作物花粉基因型却很少被鉴定出来。我们开发了一种方法，利用定制的单等位基因碱基延伸反应（SABER）和飞行时间质谱分析系统（MassARRAY）来检测单只蜜蜂携带花粉中的单核苷酸多态性（SNP），以区分在混合基因型花粉样本中占比很小的基因型。我们使用这种方法，在两个多品种澳洲坚果果园中，确定了蜜蜂在距异花授粉源不同距离处携带的花粉品种，其中一个果园有宽的单一品种种植区，另一个有窄的单一品种种植区。我们发现，许多蜜蜂只携带自花花粉。只有30%-53%的蜜蜂携带异花花粉，这代表了在自交不亲和作物中对作物产量有潜在贡献的最大比例。与异花授粉源的距离或果园设计对携带异花花粉的蜜蜂比例没有显著影响。这项研究表明，提高蜜蜂作为传粉者的有效性具有巨大潜力。果园可以重新设计，间种异花授粉源，并使对作物产量有贡献的蜜蜂数量最大化。提高授粉效率将有助于缓解作物授粉所需蜂箱供应日益短缺的问题。
