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Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert
Nectar-inhabiting microbes are increasingly appreciated as important components of plant-pollinator interactions. We quantified the incidence, abundance, diversity, and composition of bacterial and fungal communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert over the course...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6907802/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31830071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225309 |
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author | von Arx, Martin Moore, Autumn Davidowitz, Goggy Arnold, A. Elizabeth |
author_facet | von Arx, Martin Moore, Autumn Davidowitz, Goggy Arnold, A. Elizabeth |
author_sort | von Arx, Martin |
collection | PubMed |
description | Nectar-inhabiting microbes are increasingly appreciated as important components of plant-pollinator interactions. We quantified the incidence, abundance, diversity, and composition of bacterial and fungal communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert over the course of a flowering season: Datura wrightii (Solanaceae), which is pollinated by hawkmoths, and Agave palmeri (Agavaceae), which is pollinated by bats but visited by hawkmoths that forage for nectar. We examined the relevance of growing environment (greenhouse vs. field), time (before and after anthesis), season (from early to late in the flowering season), and flower visitors (excluded via mesh sleeves or allowed to visit flowers naturally) in shaping microbial assemblages in nectar. We isolated and identified bacteria and fungi from >300 nectar samples to estimate richness and taxonomic composition. Our results show that microbes were common in D. wrightii and A. palmeri nectar in the greenhouse but more so in field environments, both before and especially after anthesis. Bacteria were isolated more frequently than fungi. The abundance of microbes in nectar of D. wrightii peaked near the middle of the flowering season. Microbes generally were more abundant as time for floral visitation increased. The composition of bacterial and especially fungal communities differed significantly between nectars of D. wrightii and A. palmeri, opening the door to future studies examining their functional roles in shaping nectar chemistry, attractiveness, and pollinator specialization. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6907802 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69078022019-12-27 Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert von Arx, Martin Moore, Autumn Davidowitz, Goggy Arnold, A. Elizabeth PLoS One Research Article Nectar-inhabiting microbes are increasingly appreciated as important components of plant-pollinator interactions. We quantified the incidence, abundance, diversity, and composition of bacterial and fungal communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert over the course of a flowering season: Datura wrightii (Solanaceae), which is pollinated by hawkmoths, and Agave palmeri (Agavaceae), which is pollinated by bats but visited by hawkmoths that forage for nectar. We examined the relevance of growing environment (greenhouse vs. field), time (before and after anthesis), season (from early to late in the flowering season), and flower visitors (excluded via mesh sleeves or allowed to visit flowers naturally) in shaping microbial assemblages in nectar. We isolated and identified bacteria and fungi from >300 nectar samples to estimate richness and taxonomic composition. Our results show that microbes were common in D. wrightii and A. palmeri nectar in the greenhouse but more so in field environments, both before and especially after anthesis. Bacteria were isolated more frequently than fungi. The abundance of microbes in nectar of D. wrightii peaked near the middle of the flowering season. Microbes generally were more abundant as time for floral visitation increased. The composition of bacterial and especially fungal communities differed significantly between nectars of D. wrightii and A. palmeri, opening the door to future studies examining their functional roles in shaping nectar chemistry, attractiveness, and pollinator specialization. Public Library of Science 2019-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6907802/ /pubmed/31830071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225309 Text en © 2019 von Arx et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article von Arx, Martin Moore, Autumn Davidowitz, Goggy Arnold, A. Elizabeth Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title | Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title_full | Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title_fullStr | Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title_full_unstemmed | Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title_short | Diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the Sonoran Desert |
title_sort | diversity and distribution of microbial communities in floral nectar of two night-blooming plants of the sonoran desert |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6907802/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31830071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225309 |
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