Effects of plant viral pathogens on plant-pollinator relationships
type: CreativeWork
description: I investigated aspects of a ‘payback’ hypothesis that postulates that virus infection triggers changes in host plants that render them more attractive to pollinators. This builds on previous work, which showed that in tomato Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infection enhanced emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that attracted bumblebees and enhanced pollination of infected plants. To test if this hypothesis is tenable with other viruses and with plants other than tomato, and to determine if pollinators might derive some advantage by visiting flowers of infected plants, I used two common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) varieties, and three bean-infecting viruses (a CMV bean isolate, Bean common mosaic virus, and Bean common mosaic necrosis virus). Commercially produced bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) and wild bees were studied, respectively, under glasshouse conditions and in the field. My data indicates that viruses can pay back susceptible hosts by attracting pollinators through changes in host-emitted VOCs and rewarding pollinators through greater nectar quantity and sucrose concentration. The enhanced pollinator attraction correlated with a recovery in seed production in virus-infected bean plants. Virus infection delayed the onset of flowering and decreased flower numbers, but it also caused bee-perceptible changes to flower petal colour, increased nectar volumes and nectar sucrose concentration. Changes in nectar volume/concentration are likely to encourage bee visitation. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed that headspace VOCs emitted by virus-infected plants were qualitatively distinct from those of mock-inoculated plants and that virus-infected plants emitted greater quantities of VOCs. In free-choice olfactometry assays, bumblebees displayed an innate preference for VOCs emitted by non-flowering BCMNV-infected plants and both non-flowering and flowering BCMV and CMV-infected plants over those from mock-inoculated plants. Where bumblebees showed no i…
abstract: I investigated aspects of a ‘payback’ hypothesis that postulates that virus infection triggers changes in host plants that render them more attractive to pollinators. This builds on previous work, which showed that in tomato Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infection enhanced emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that attracted bumblebees and enhanced pollination of infected plants. To test if this hypothesis is tenable with other viruses and with plants other than tomato, and to determine if pollinators might derive some advantage by visiting flowers of infected plants, I used two common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) varieties, and three bean-infecting viruses (a CMV bean isolate, Bean common mosaic virus, and Bean common mosaic necrosis virus). Commercially produced bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) and wild bees were studied, respectively, under glasshouse conditions and in the field. My data indicates that viruses can pay back susceptible hosts by attracting pollinators through changes in host-emitted VOCs and rewarding pollinators through greater nectar quantity and sucrose concentration. The enhanced pollinator attraction correlated with a recovery in seed production in virus-infected bean plants. Virus infection delayed the onset of flowering and decreased flower numbers, but it also caused bee-perceptible changes to flower petal colour, increased nectar volumes and nectar sucrose concentration. Changes in nectar volume/concentration are likely to encourage bee visitation. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed that headspace VOCs emitted by virus-infected plants were qualitatively distinct from those of mock-inoculated plants and that virus-infected plants emitted greater quantities of VOCs. In free-choice olfactometry assays, bumblebees displayed an innate preference for VOCs emitted by non-flowering BCMNV-infected plants and both non-flowering and flowering BCMV and CMV-infected plants over those from mock-inoculated plants. Where bumblebees showed no i…
author: Mhlanga, Netsai Margareth
language: en
keywords: bumblebees, virus-infected, mock-inoculated, BCMV, BCMNV, CMV
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/be036ea6-3575-4ea3-94a7-5e41f6f29dca/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2020-03-21
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:13Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.48560