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ViewAttendees 11

P-IE

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Undergrad 10-min: P-IE, Pollinators

Using honey bee (Apis mellifera) collected pollen as an early indicator for viral plant diseases impacting crops in Pennsylvania

On-Demand
Student Competition On-Demand
Plant viruses contribute significantly to diseases and reductions in crop yield.  Symptoms from viral infections can take weeks to develop, making it difficult for growers to treat crops for diseases early on without overusing prophylactic measures.  Many plant viruses are found in the pollen of flowering crops, which is collected in large quantities by honey bees (Apis mellifera) to provision their young.  While this may contribute to viral transmission among plants, it may also serve as a system for large-scale monitoring of plant virus presence and prevalence, since honey bees collect and aggregate pollen from up to 10 km from their colonies. Our study will screen pollen collected from honey bee colonies housed at 3 apiaries across Pennsylvania to determine if honey bees can be used as an early detection system for economically important crops. We hypothesize that honey bees will collect pollen with plant viruses present in the landscape and can be used as an early indicator system. Having an early detection system in place will help growers provide early treatment to virus infected plants to limit the spread of pathogens, decreasing prophylactic treatments, and increasing crop yield.  This study will also improve our understanding of how interactions between pollinators and plants affect the spread of viruses among these communities.