464: Prodding Pollen's Popping Process

This episode: Certain nectar-dwelling bacteria can induce pollen
to germinate to access their tasty proteins!


Download Episode (6.0 MB, 8.8 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Clostridium oceanicum


 


News item

 



Takeaways




Nectar in flowers seems like it would be a great place
for microbes to live, since it has so much sugar, but
it's actually somewhat difficult to thrive solely in and
on nectar. The carbon in sugar is only one essential
element for life, and there's enough of it that it can be
overwhelming to the osmotic balance of many microbes.
Pollen could provide more nutrients in the form of
protein and the nitrogen that comes with it, but it is
difficult to penetrate its hard shell.


 


In this study, certain kinds of bacteria that live in
nectar were able to access more pollen protein than other
microbes by inducing pollen to germinate, growing out of
its shell, or burst and release the protein directly.
These microbes only benefited from pollen that were still
alive and able to germinate, and not from those that had
been disabled.



 
Journal Paper:
Christensen SM, Munkres I, Vannette RL. 2021. Nectar bacteria
stimulate pollen germination and bursting to enhance
microbial fitness. Curr Biol 31:4373-4380.e6.




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