New metabarcoding approach to boost population of honeybees

Researchers at the Ohio State University are using the latest DNAhttp://www.cusabio.com/ sequencing technology and a supercomputer in order to uncover what honey bees rely on. After several months' research from beehives, they developed a multi-locus metabarcoding approach to identify which plants, and what proportions of each, are present in pollen samples they collected. A beehive can collect pollen from different plant species, and the pollen is a strong evidence of the hive's foraging behavior and nutrition preferences. "Knowing the degree to which certain plants are being foraged upon allows us to infer things like the potential for pesticide exposure in a given landscape, the preference of certain plant species over others, and the degree to which certain plant species contribute to the honey bee diet," says Rodney Richardson, graduate student from the Ohio State University. "One of the major interests of our lab is researching honey bee foraging preferences so we can enhance landscapes to sustain robust honey bee populations." Richardson and his colleagues took metabarcoding as the key to this research. It is a DNA analysis method that enables researchers to identify biological specimens. It works by comparing short genetic sequence "markers" from unidentified biological specimens to libraries of known reference sequences. Metabarcoding can be used to detect biological contaminants in water and food, characterize animal diets from dung samples, and even test air samples for bacteria and fungal spores. When it comes to pollen, it could save a lot of time for researchers to identify and count individual pollen grains under a microscope. The researchers used three specific locations in the genome, or loci, as markers, to devise the new metabarcoding method and found that using multiple loci simultaneously produced the best metabarcoding results for pollen. In their publication in the November issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, they described the entire procedure including DNA extraction, sequencing, and marker analysis. "With a tool like this, we could more easily assess what plants various bee species are relying on, helping to boost their populations as well as the economic and ecological services they provide to our agricultural and natural landscapes." Richardson says, "While the honey bee is seen as our most economically important pollinator, it's only one of several hundred bee species in Ohio, the vast majority of which are greatly understudied in terms of their foraging ecology." The new tool can help humans to assess what plants various bee species are relying on more easily, thus helping to boost their populations. Since the honey bee is seen as the most economically important pollinator, their prosperous population can improve the economic and ecological services they provide to our agricultural and natural landscapes. You may like this>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/VV10542-1089591.html