TODAY! CEC Meeting
Date: Tuesday, April 11th, 7:30 PM EST
Location: In person in the Gilbert Room (MCZ 101A), on Zoom at
https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92664403460?pwd=MEJGMmxrT1JHNGVjOFo3bzluR3JqZz09
Title: "Disease where you dine: The role of floral traits in pollinator-pathogen interactions"
Speaker: Lynn S. Adler (UMass Amherst)
Summary: Food resources can alter host-pathogen dynamics not only via nutrition, but in some cases via chemical or mechanical traits that reduce infection. Many pollinator species are declining due to a range of factors including parasites and pathogens, but the potential for specific plant species to structure pollinator-pathogen interactions is largely unrecognized. Our previous work discovered that consuming sunflower pollen (Helianthus annuus) dramatically and consistently reduced infection by the gut pathogen Crithidia bombi in the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens. We have since expanded this work to consider (a) the breadth of this effect, in terms of both the extent of plant species whose pollen reduces Crithidia and the range of bee castes and species that are responsive, (b) the mechanism underlying this effect and (c) the field consequences of sunflower pollen for pollinator health. Our work demonstrates the role that a single key floral resource could play in pollinator-pathogen dynamics. Our current future research goals are to link our understanding of this system across scales from molecular to landscape.