title: Using metabarcoding to reveal and quantify plant-pollinator interactions.
abstract: Given the ongoing decline of both pollinators and plants, it is crucial to implement effective methods to describe complex pollination networks across time and space in a comprehensive and high-throughput way. Here we tested if metabarcoding may circumvent the limits of conventional methodologies in detecting and quantifying plant-pollinator interactions. Metabarcoding experiments on pollen DNA mixtures described a positive relationship between the amounts of DNA from focal species and the number of trnL and ITS1 sequences yielded. The study of pollen loads of insects captured in plant communities revealed that as compared to the observation of visits, metabarcoding revealed 2.5 times more plant species involved in plant-pollinator interactions. We further observed a tight positive relationship between the pollen-carrying capacities of insect taxa and the number of trnL and ITS1 sequences. The number of visits received per plant species also positively correlated to the number of their ITS1 and trnL sequences in insect pollen loads. By revealing interactions hard to observe otherwise, metabarcoding significantly enlarges the spatiotemporal observation window of pollination interactions. By providing new qualitative and quantitative information, metabarcoding holds great promise for investigating diverse facets of interactions and will provide a new perception of pollination networks as a whole.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pornon
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Escaravage
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burrus
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Holota
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Biogeosciences, Université de Bourgogne 6 bld Gabriel, F-21000 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khimoun
authors.affiliation: Plate-forme Bio-informatique Genotoul, Mathématiques et Informatique Appliqués INRA, UR875 Toulouse, F-31320 Castanet-Tolosan, France.
authors.forename: Jérome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mariette
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Charlène
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pellizzari
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Amaia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iribar
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Roselyne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Etienne
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 43, F-38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taberlet
authors.affiliation: GeT-PlaGe, Genotoul, INRA UAR1209, F-31320 Castanet-Tolosan, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: Département de Langues et Gestion, Université Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Winterton
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zinger
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Evolution and Diversité Biologique EDB, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, F-31062 Toulouse, France.|CNRS, EDB, UMR 5174, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Andalo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic / Q000379:methods*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D011058:Pollen / Q000235:genetics*; D054817:Pollination; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant