Bees digest: Pumpkin pollen edition

120 billion pounds of vegetables are produced in the US annually, pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) contribute to over 2 billion pounds. Pumpkins are monoecious plants that rely on pollinators to move pollen from male to female flowers for fruit set. Recent findings have shown that pumpkin pollen is toxic to the common Eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens), a bee commonly found in cucurbit systems. Pumpkin pollen affects the adult bumble bees’ digestion and decreases larval rearing ability. Squash bee (Eucera (Peponapis) pruinosa) another common pollinator in cucurbit cropping systems is an obligatory feeder of Cucurbita pollen, with female pollen loads nearing 100% cucurbit pollen. This study aims to examine if gut microbiomes play a role in explaining why some bees can digest pumpkin pollen but others cannot. The bee species used in this study include the European honey bee (Apis mellifera ), the common Eastern bumble bee (B. impatiens), the squash bee (Eucera pruinosa), and the two spotted long-horned bee (Mellisodes bimacultas). Bees were kept in climate controlled growth chambers and provided a diet of C. pepo pollen, water and a 1:1 sugar water mixture. Bee digestive tracts were dissected from which microbial DNA was purified. The gut bacterial composition will be profiled using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the correlation of core gut microbial community and bee species with varying capacity of cucurbit pollen digestion will be established. This study will be performed in multiple stages with the first stage reporting the observed  gut microbiota of these four bee species.