@article{98bb85343e5a4a5cb49dedf0245459ea,
title = "Touch-sensitive stamens enhance pollen dispersal by scaring away visitors",
abstract = "Animal-pollinated plants have to get pollen to a conspecific stigma while protecting it from getting eaten. Touch-sensitive stamens, which are found in hundreds of flowering plants, are thought to function in enhancing pollen export and reducing its loss, but experimental tests are scarce. Stamens of Berberis and Mahonia are inserted between paired nectar glands and when touched by an insect{\textquoteright}s tongue rapidly snap forward so that their valvate anthers press pollen on the insect{\textquoteright}s tongue or face. We immobilized the stamens in otherwise unmodified flowers and studied pollen transfer in the field and under enclosed conditions. On flowers with immobilized stamens, the most common bee visitor stayed up to 3.6× longer, yet removed 1.3× fewer pollen grains and deposited 2.1× fewer grains on stigmas per visit. Self-pollen from a single stamen hitting the stigma amounted to 6\% of the grains received from single bee visits. Bees discarded pollen passively placed on their bodies, likely because of its berberine content; nectar has no berberine. Syrphid flies fed on both nectar and pollen, taking more when stamens were immobilized. Pollen-tracking experiments in two Berberis species showed that mobile-stamen-flowers donate pollen to many more recipients. These results demonstrate another mechanism by which plants simultaneously meter out their pollen and reduce pollen theft.",
author = "Li, \{Deng Fei\} and Han, \{Wen Long\} and Renner, \{Susanne S.\} and Huang, \{Shuang Quan\}",
note = "Funding Information: National Natural Science Foundation of China Funding Information: We thank lab members Q-M Quan, X-W Lv, and Z-X Tian for field assistance and Z-Y Tong, and Y-Z Xiong for methodological and statistical advice; Dr. Huan-Li Xu, Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, for the identification of flies and bees; Dr. Antti Haarto, Zoological Museum, University of Turku, Finland, for the identification of Meliscaeva; Dr. Michael Orr, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, for the identification of Habropoda cf. sichuanensis; Dr. Chih-Chieh Yu for confirming our plant identifications; Z-D Fang and staff of Shangri-La Botanical Garden for logistical support; Sarah Corbet, Steven Johnson, and Nathan Muchhala for providing helpful suggestions on early versions of this manuscript; and the reviewers Bernhard Schmid, Zong-Xin Ren, and Felipe Yon for their constructive comments. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31730012 and 32030071) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. CCNU22LJ003) to S-QH. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Li et al.",
year = "2022",
month = oct,
doi = "10.7554/eLife.81449",
language = "English",
volume = "11",
journal = "eLife",
issn = "2050-084X",
}