Comparing the Melissopalynological and Next Generation Sequencing Methods for the Determining of Botanical Origin of Honey

This study aims to compare the melissopalynological method with Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to determine the botanical and geographical origin of honey. For NGS analysis, forty honey samples in the collected 74 honey samples were selected by mellisopalynological methods considering the total number of pollen, honeydew elements, and dominance pollen status. The quality of the isolated DNAs was determined by spectrophotometric and electrophoretic methods. DNA specimens extracted from the 40 honey samples provided yields between 2 to 190 ng/µl. We compared NGS data using the rbcL and trnH-psbA DNA barcode marker with melissopalynological analysis. With NGS analysis, 3,020,963 sequence reads and 526,746,371 bases were obtained for a total of 61 amplicons. NGS analysis detected 48% more plant families for all honey samples compared to the melissopalynological method, showing that NGS is a powerful and robust method for detecting honey provenance. In the conclusion of this study, for the first time, honey samples collected from different geographical regions in Turkey were barcoded using rbcL and trnH-psbA loci and compared using melissopalynology and NGS. Results show that 53 families have an abundance of >20% when comparing the two methods. This study is particularly relevant for revealing the unique and diverse flora of Turkey, with the potential to be used as a reference atlas for honey bee floral resources.