Disease where you dine: plant species and floral traits associated with pathogen transmission in bumble bees.

ABSTRACT: Hotspots of disease transmission can strongly influence pathogen spread. Bee pathogens may be transmitted via shared floral use, but the role of plant species and floral trait variation in shaping transmission dynamics is almost entirely unexplored. Given the importance of pathogens for the decline of several bee species, understanding whether and how plant species and floral traits affect transmission could give us important tools for predicting which plant species may be hotspots for disease spread. We assessed variation in transmission via susceptibility (probability of infection) and mean intensity (cell count of infected bees) of the trypanosomatid gut pathogen Crithidia bombi to uninfected Bombus impatiens workers foraging on 14 plant species, and assessed the role of floral traits,

SUBMITTER: Adler LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6212312 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature