Are sterols landscape limiting nutrients for wild bees in the UK?

甾醇景观是否限制了英国野生蜜蜂的营养？

• 批准号: NE/V012282/1
• 负责人: Philip Stevenson
• 金额: $ 82.86万
• 依托单位: Royal Botanic Gardens
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FV012282%2F1
• 关键词: sterols; landscape; limiting; nutrients; wild

Sterols are essential nutrients for insects (e.g., for membrane fluidity, hormones and physiological functions). Sterols in plant vegetative tissues predominantly comprise two sterols; beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol. However, in pollen - from which bees obtain their nutrient provision - sterols are structurally diverse and highly variable. Our pilot data show striking variations among 25 pollen sterols across more than 100 plants representing over 50 families sampled from a global collection at Kew with specific sterol groups occurring in closely related plants. Research on the nutritional requirements of honey bees - the only well-studied bee species in this respect - indicates that they cannot synthesise sterols and that their tissue sterol composition is determined by the specific sterols in their diet. Thus, in terms of sterols bees are what they eat. We also know from existing research on artificial diets that honey bee larval growth and survival is highly sensitive to their dietary sterols. For example, honey bees require 24-methylenecholesterol (24MC) for brood rearing and their development is improved significantly when diets are supplemented with this sterol. Our pilot data shows that 24MC is abundant in royal jelly provisioned to larvae and in a range of plant pollens popular with honey bees e.g., in the Rosaceae but is absent from many plant families including Asteraceae which is avoided for pollen by honey bees suggesting sterol composition could influence pollen choice in bees. However, almost nothing is known about the nutritional needs of wild bee species, especially sterols, but our pilot work shows that the sterol profiles of bees vary dramatically across different species but closely match the sterol profiles of the pollen collected by these bees for food. For example, the sterols from ivy flower pollen (Hedera helix) are highly similar to those of the ivy bee (Colletes hederae), which forages exclusively on ivy for pollen. Furthermore, while the sterols of ivy bees and ivy pollen match they differ dramatically from sterols of bumble bees which have sterols matching the pollen they collect. These in turn differ from the sterols of red mason bees (Osmia bicornis). This close association between pollen and bee sterol chemistry strongly suggests that these other bees use the specific sterols in the pollen they collect. We do not currently know whether these differences reflect differences in sterol tolerances or differences in sterol requirements. This project will test this for the first time. Either way, these differences would provide a mechanistic basis for bee population and community dynamics, and thus also a valuable tool in conserving diverse bee communities and the ecosystem services they provide. We will undertake the first comprehensive assessment of sterol nutrients in pollen of UK plants and in UK wild bees. Using these data, we will identify key plant species that can support the greatest diversity of wild bee species. These data will be integrated into landscape scale models of pollen resources to inform pollen sterol provision in the UK. Landscape-scale modelling based on measurements of plant distributions will be used to estimate the capacity of the landscape to support pollinator populations, taking a major step forward from existing assessments on nectar and carbohydrates. We will match these data with assessments of wild bee species to determine how important specific pollen sterols are for specific bees. We will conduct the first ever assessment of how sterols influence development in wild bees to understand fully the potential cost of sterol limitations in the landscape, how dependent bee species are on specific sterols and how this influences specialisation in wild bees. Our data will inform delivery of the UK government's 25 Year Environment Plan and National Pollinator Strategy and wider initiatives to renew floral landscapes in support of bees.

甾醇是昆虫必需的营养物质（例如，膜的流动性、激素和生理功能）。植物营养组织中的甾醇主要包含两种甾醇： β-谷甾醇和豆甾醇。然而，蜜蜂从中获取营养的花粉中的甾醇结构多样且变化很大。我们的试点数据显示，从邱园全球采集的 50 多个科的 100 多种植物中，25 种花粉甾醇之间存在显着差异，且特定甾醇组出现在密切相关的植物中。对蜜蜂（这方面唯一经过充分研究的蜜蜂物种）的营养需求的研究表明，它们不能合成甾醇，并且它们的组织甾醇组成由其饮食中的特定甾醇决定。因此，就甾醇而言，蜜蜂就是它们吃的东西。我们还从现有的人工饲料研究中得知，蜜蜂幼虫的生长和生存对其膳食甾醇高度敏感。例如，蜜蜂需要 24-亚甲基胆固醇 (24MC) 来育雏，当饮食中添加这种甾醇时，它们的发育会显着改善。我们的试验数据显示，24MC 在提供给幼虫的蜂王浆和一系列深受蜜蜂欢迎的植物花粉（例如蔷薇科）中含量丰富，但在包括菊科在内的许多植物科中不存在，蜜蜂避免使用菊科花粉，这表明其含有甾醇成分可能会影响蜜蜂花粉的选择。然而，我们对野生蜜蜂的营养需求几乎一无所知，尤其是甾醇，但我们的试点工作表明，不同物种的蜜蜂的甾醇谱差异很大，但与这些蜜蜂收集的食物花粉的甾醇谱非常匹配。例如，常春藤花花粉（Hedera helix）中的甾醇与常春藤蜂（Colletes hederae）中的甾醇非常相似，后者专门以常春藤为花粉。此外，虽然常春藤蜂和常春藤花粉的甾醇相匹配，但它们与熊蜂的甾醇有很大不同，熊蜂的甾醇与它们收集的花粉相匹配。这些反过来又不同于红梅森蜂（Osmia bicornis）的甾醇。花粉和蜜蜂甾醇化学之间的密切联系强烈表明这些其他蜜蜂在它们收集的花粉中使用特定的甾醇。我们目前不知道这些差异是否反映了甾醇耐受性的差异或甾醇需求的差异。该项目将首次对此进行测试。无论哪种方式，这些差异都将为蜜蜂种群和群落动态提供机制基础，因此也是保护多样化蜜蜂群落及其提供的生态系统服务的宝贵工具。我们将对英国植物花粉和英国野蜂的甾醇营养成分进行首次全面评估。利用这些数据，我们将确定能够支持野生蜜蜂物种最大多样性的关键植物物种。这些数据将被整合到花粉资源的景观尺度模型中，以便为英国的花粉甾醇供应提供信息。基于植物分布测量的景观规模模型将用于估计景观支持传粉媒介种群的能力，这在现有的花蜜和碳水化合物评估的基础上向前迈出了一大步。我们将这些数据与野生蜜蜂物种的评估相匹配，以确定特定花粉甾醇对特定蜜蜂的重要性。我们将首次评估甾醇如何影响野生蜜蜂的发育，以充分了解景观中甾醇限制的潜在成本、蜜蜂物种对特定甾醇的依赖程度以及这如何影响野生蜜蜂的专业化。我们的数据将为英国政府 25 年环境计划和国家传粉媒介战略的实施以及更新花卉景观以支持蜜蜂的更广泛举措提供信息。

项目成果

Host and gut microbiome modulate the antiparasitic activity of nectar metabolites in a bumblebee pollinator.

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0162
• 发表时间: 2022-06-20
• 期刊: PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 6.3
• 作者: Koch, Hauke;Welcome, Vita;Kendal-Smith, Amy;Thursfield, Lucy;Farrell, Iain W.;Langat, Moses K.;Brown, Mark J. F.;Stevenson, Philip C.
• 通讯作者: Stevenson, Philip C.

Dietary PUFAs drive diverse system-level changes in lipid metabolism.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.molmet.2022.101457
• 发表时间: 2022-05
• 期刊: Molecular metabolism
• 影响因子: 8.1
• 作者: Furse S;Virtue S;Snowden SG;Vidal-Puig A;Stevenson PC;Chiarugi D;Koulman A
• 通讯作者: Koulman A

Natural processes influencing pollinator health.

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0154
• 发表时间: 2022-06-20
• 期刊: PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 6.3
• 作者: Stevenson, Philip C.;Koch, Hauke;Nicolson, Susan W.;Brown, Mark J. F.
• 通讯作者: Brown, Mark J. F.

Sterol composition in plants is specific to pollen, leaf, pollination and pollinator.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2023.113800
• 发表时间: 2023-10
• 期刊: PHYTOCHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 3.8
• 作者: Furse, Samuel;Martel, Carlos;Yusuf, Abdikarim;Shearman, Gemma C.;Koch, Hauke;Stevenson, Philip C.
• 通讯作者: Stevenson, Philip C.

Agri-environment scheme nectar chemistry can suppress the social epidemiology of parasites in an important pollinator.

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0363
• 发表时间: 2021-05-26
• 期刊: Proceedings. Biological sciences
• 作者: Folly AJ;Koch H;Farrell IW;Stevenson PC;Brown MJF
• 通讯作者: Brown MJF