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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...

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Autores principales: von Arx, Martin, Moore, Autumn, Davidowitz, Goggy, Arnold, A. Elizabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
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.
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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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