Microbial communities on flower surfaces act as signatures of pollinator visitation.

ABSTRACT: Microbes are easily dispersed from one place to another, and immigrant microbes might contain information about the environments from which they came. We hypothesized that part of the microbial community on a flower's surface is transferred there from insect body surfaces and that this community can provide information to identify potential pollinator insects of that plant. We collected insect samples from the field, and found that an insect individual harbored an average of 12.2 × 10(5) microbial cells on its surface. A laboratory experiment showed that the microbial community composition on a flower surface changed after contact with an insect, suggesting that microbes are transferred from the insect to the flower. Comparison of the microbial fingerprint approach and direct visual observ

SUBMITTER: Ushio M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4346974 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature