The importance of pollen chemistry in evolutionary host shifts of bees

[en] Although bee-plant associations are generally maintained through speciation processes, host shifts have occurred during evolution. Understanding shifts between both phylogenetically and morphologically unrelated plants (i.e., host-saltation) is especially important since they could have been key processes in the origin and radiation of bees. Probably far from being a random process, such host-saltation might be driven by hidden constraints associated with plant traits. We selected two clades of oligolectic bees (i.e., Colletes succinctus group and Melitta leporina group) foraging on co-flowering but unrelated host-plants to test this hypothesis. We analyzed floral scent, floral color and chemical composition of pollen from host and non-host plants of these two clades. We did not find evidence for host-plant evolution in the Melitta leporina group driven by one of the assayed floral traits. On the contrary, hosts of the C. succinctus group display similar primary nutritive content of pollen (i.e., amino acids and sterols) but not similar floral scent or color, suggesting that shared pollen chemistry probably mediates saltation in this clade. Our study revealed that constraints shaping floral associations are diverse and clearly depend on species life-history traits, but evidence suggests that pollen chemistry may act as a major floral filter and guide evolutionary host-shifts.

Disciplines :

Entomology & pest control
Chemistry
Phytobiology (plant sciences, forestry, mycology...)
Environmental sciences & ecology

Author, co-author :

Vanderplanck, Maryse ; University of Mons > Research Institute for Biosciences > Laboratory of Zoology

Vereecken, Nicolas

Grumiau, Laurent

Esposito, Fabiana

Lognay, Georges ; Université de Liège > Agronomie, Bio-ingénierie et Chimie (AgroBioChem) > Analyse, qual. et risques - Labo. de Chimie analytique

Wattiez, Ruddy

Michez, Denis

Language :

English

Title :

The importance of pollen chemistry in evolutionary host shifts of bees

Publication date :

20 February 2017

Journal title :

Scientific Reports

eISSN :

2045-2322

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group, London, United Kingdom

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 18 January 2017

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