title: Rank-based characterization of pollen assemblages collected by honey bees using a multi-locus metabarcoding approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Difficulties inherent in microscopic pollen identification have resulted in limited implementation for large-scale studies. Metabarcoding, a relatively novel approach, could make pollen analysis less onerous; however, improved understanding of the quantitative capacity of various plant metabarcode regions and primer sets is needed to ensure that such applications are accurate and precise.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We applied metabarcoding, targeting the ITS2, matK, and rbcL loci, to characterize six samples of pollen collected by honey bees, Apis mellifera. Additionally, samples were analyzed by light microscopy. We found significant rank-based associations between the relative abundance of pollen types within our samples as inferred by the two methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest metabarcoding data from plastid loci, as opposed to the ribosomal locus, are more reliable for quantitative characterization of pollen assemblages. Furthermore, multilocus metabarcoding of pollen may be more reliable than single-locus analyses, underscoring the need for discovering novel barcodes and barcode combinations optimized for molecular palynology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA.
authors.forename: Rodney T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA.
authors.forename: Chia-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA.
authors.forename: Juan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Quijia
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA.
authors.forename: Natalia S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Riusech
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 1179 University Drive, Newark, Ohio 43023 USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goodell
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, Ohio 44691 USA.
authors.forename: Reed M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Johnson
keywords: Apis mellifera; Fraxinus; matK; molecular palynology; pollen plastid biology; rbcL