Metagenome analysis of pollen baskets from foraging bees in apple orchards

Bees are important pollinators of wild and agricultural landscapes. The pollination services provided by managed and non- manage bees are essential for food security. Meanwhile, bees forage for resources in flowers, they transport pollen among the different plants they visit. The analysis of the microbes present in an orchard and their possible transmission during pollination is a major concern in agriculture. Pollen grains collected from foraging insects are a valuable sampling effort and a source of information to detail the microbial populations in natural and agricultural ecosystems. The floral foraging activities in the different plants present an opportunity to maximize the sampling process. Although has been hypostatized that the pollination service has a net fitness cost by pathogen transmission, the pollen metagenome analysis will infer further microbial interactions of the flowering plants with their foraging insects.