Researchers studied alpine plant species to explore how flower scent chemistry influences both the diversity of insect pollinators and the bacterial communities on the flowers.
Published in New Phytologist, the study shows that high floral scent chemodiversity—the presence of various chemical compounds—attracts a greater diversity of pollinators but reduces bacterial diversity on flowers. Based on these findings, the researchers proposed the “Filthy Pollinator Hypothesis.”
Key Insights of the Filthy Pollinator Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggests two key points: flowers with more chemically diverse scents attract a wider range of pollinators, increasing the chance of microbial transfer between plants, and that floral scent chemodiversity helps reduce harmful microbial colonization by blocking harmful microbes while still supporting beneficial ones.
“This process may offer an evolutionary reason for why floral scent chemodiversity continues to exist,” said Maximilian Hanusch, Ph.D., corresponding author from Marburg University, Germany.
Read the original article on: Phys.Org
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