Cargando…

Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors

Animal-pollinated plants have to get pollen to a conspecific stigma while protecting it from getting eaten. Touch-sensitive stamens, which are found in hundreds of flowering plants, are thought to function in enhancing pollen export and reducing its loss, but experimental tests are scarce. Stamens o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Li, Deng-Fei, Han, Wen-Long, Renner, Susanne S, Huang, Shuang-Quan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36217820
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81449
_version_ 1784806945138409472
author Li, Deng-Fei
Han, Wen-Long
Renner, Susanne S
Huang, Shuang-Quan
author_facet Li, Deng-Fei
Han, Wen-Long
Renner, Susanne S
Huang, Shuang-Quan
author_sort Li, Deng-Fei
collection PubMed
description Animal-pollinated plants have to get pollen to a conspecific stigma while protecting it from getting eaten. Touch-sensitive stamens, which are found in hundreds of flowering plants, are thought to function in enhancing pollen export and reducing its loss, but experimental tests are scarce. Stamens of Berberis and Mahonia are inserted between paired nectar glands and when touched by an insect’s tongue rapidly snap forward so that their valvate anthers press pollen on the insect’s tongue or face. We immobilized the stamens in otherwise unmodified flowers and studied pollen transfer in the field and under enclosed conditions. On flowers with immobilized stamens, the most common bee visitor stayed up to 3.6× longer, yet removed 1.3× fewer pollen grains and deposited 2.1× fewer grains on stigmas per visit. Self-pollen from a single stamen hitting the stigma amounted to 6% of the grains received from single bee visits. Bees discarded pollen passively placed on their bodies, likely because of its berberine content; nectar has no berberine. Syrphid flies fed on both nectar and pollen, taking more when stamens were immobilized. Pollen-tracking experiments in two Berberis species showed that mobile-stamen-flowers donate pollen to many more recipients. These results demonstrate another mechanism by which plants simultaneously meter out their pollen and reduce pollen theft.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9555859
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95558592022-10-13 Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors Li, Deng-Fei Han, Wen-Long Renner, Susanne S Huang, Shuang-Quan eLife Ecology Animal-pollinated plants have to get pollen to a conspecific stigma while protecting it from getting eaten. Touch-sensitive stamens, which are found in hundreds of flowering plants, are thought to function in enhancing pollen export and reducing its loss, but experimental tests are scarce. Stamens of Berberis and Mahonia are inserted between paired nectar glands and when touched by an insect’s tongue rapidly snap forward so that their valvate anthers press pollen on the insect’s tongue or face. We immobilized the stamens in otherwise unmodified flowers and studied pollen transfer in the field and under enclosed conditions. On flowers with immobilized stamens, the most common bee visitor stayed up to 3.6× longer, yet removed 1.3× fewer pollen grains and deposited 2.1× fewer grains on stigmas per visit. Self-pollen from a single stamen hitting the stigma amounted to 6% of the grains received from single bee visits. Bees discarded pollen passively placed on their bodies, likely because of its berberine content; nectar has no berberine. Syrphid flies fed on both nectar and pollen, taking more when stamens were immobilized. Pollen-tracking experiments in two Berberis species showed that mobile-stamen-flowers donate pollen to many more recipients. These results demonstrate another mechanism by which plants simultaneously meter out their pollen and reduce pollen theft. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2022-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9555859/ /pubmed/36217820 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81449 Text en © 2022, Li et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Li, Deng-Fei
Han, Wen-Long
Renner, Susanne S
Huang, Shuang-Quan
Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title_full Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title_fullStr Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title_full_unstemmed Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title_short Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
title_sort touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36217820
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81449
work_keys_str_mv AT lidengfei touchsensitivestamensenhancepollendispersalbyscaringawayvisitors
AT hanwenlong touchsensitivestamensenhancepollendispersalbyscaringawayvisitors
AT rennersusannes touchsensitivestamensenhancepollendispersalbyscaringawayvisitors
AT huangshuangquan touchsensitivestamensenhancepollendispersalbyscaringawayvisitors