Pollen essential amino acids shape bat-flower interaction networks

Although pollen consumption by phytophagous bats has long been documented, the role of its protein and amino acid content in driving plant–pollinator interactions remains largely overlooked. Since animals can synthesise non-essential amino acids (NEAA) but rely on dietary for essential amino acids (EAA), pollen may serve as a reward through an amino acid composition that is tailored to the nutritional demands of pollinators.
This study examines how pollen protein and amino acid composition influence year-round and seasonal bat-flower interaction networks in the Pantanal floodplain through extensive, long-term, bat-centred sampling. We predicted that EAA-richer plant species would play central roles within the networks by exhibiting a higher normalised degree (i.e., how many bat species a given plant species interact with) and greater interaction strength (i.e., how intense the interactions are) in the network.
The year-round network consisted of eight plant species with chiropterophilou..., , # Pollen essential amino acids shape bat-flower interaction networks

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhs0](10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhs0)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Table 1**. Total protein (mg per 100 mg of pollen dry mass) and content of essential (EAA) and non-essential (NEAA) amino acids (mg per 100 mg of total protein) in the pollen of seven bat-pollinated plant species in the Pantanal wetland, southwestern Brazil. Values are means ± standard deviations from five subsamples per species.

**Supplementary Table 3.** Number of faecal samples collected from 12 bat species containing pollen of eight plant species in the Pantanal wetland, southwestern Brazil.

**Supplementary Table 4**. Number of bat captures, number of faecal samples provided, and number and percentage of faecal samples containing pollen from 12 bat species in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil.

### Files and variables

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### **Description:** Matrix of bat–flower interactions and the amino acids pres...,