The Effects of Diesel Exhaust Pollution on Floral Volatiles and the Consequences for Honey Bee Olfaction.

There is growing evidence of a substantial decline in pollinators within Europe and North America, most likely caused by multiple factors such as diseases, poor nutrition, habitat loss, insecticides, and environmental pollution. Diesel exhaust could be a contributing factor to this decline, since we found that diesel exhaust rapidly degrades floral volatiles, which honey bees require for flower recognition. In this study, we exposed eight of the most common floral volatiles to diesel exhaust in order to investigate whether it can affect volatile mediated plant-pollinator interaction. Exposure to diesel exhaust altered the blend of common flower volatiles significantly: myrcene was considerably reduced, ß-ocimene became undetectable, and ß-caryophyllene was transformed into its cis-isomer isocaryophyllene. Proboscis extension response (PER) assays showed that the alterations of the blend reduced the ability of honey bees to recognize it. The chemically reactive nitrogen oxides fraction of diesel exhaust gas was identified as capable of causing degradation of floral volatiles.

Functional analysis of the rice vacuolar zinc transporter OsMTP1.

Heavy metal homeostasis is maintained in plant cells by specialized transporters which compartmentalize or efflux metal ions, maintaining cytosolic concentrations within a narrow range. OsMTP1 is a member of the cation diffusion facilitator (CDF)/metal tolerance protein (MTP) family of metal cation transporters in Oryza sativa, which is closely related to Arabidopsis thaliana MTP1. Functional complementation of the Arabidopsis T-DNA insertion mutant mtp1-1 demonstrates that OsMTP1 transports Zn in planta and localizes at the tonoplast. When heterologously expressed in the yeast mutant zrc1 cot1, OsMTP1 complemented its Zn hypersensitivity and was also localized to the vacuole. OsMTP1 alleviated, to some extent, the Co sensitivity of this mutant, rescued the Fe hypersensitivity of the ccc1 mutant at low Fe concentrations, and restored growth of the Cd-hypersensitive mutant ycf1 at low Cd concentrations. These results suggest that OsMTP1 transports Zn but also Co, Fe, and Cd, possibly with lower affinity. Site-directed mutagenesis studies revealed two substitutions in OsMTP1 that alter the transport function of this protein. OsMTP1 harbouring a substitution of Leu82 to a phenylalanine can still transport low levels of Zn, with an enhanced affinity for Fe and Co, and a gain of function for Mn. A substitution of His90 with an aspartic acid completely abolishes Zn transport but improves Fe transport in OsMTP1. These amino acid residues are important in determining substrate specificity and may be a starting point for refining transporter activity in possible biotechnological applications, such as biofortification and phytoremediation.

Dissecting the relative contribution of ECA3 and group 8/9 cation diffusion facilitators to manganese homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth but becomes toxic when present in excess. A number of Arabidopsis proteins are involved in Mn transport including ECA3, MTPs, and NRAMPs; however, their relative contributions to Mn homeostasis remain to be demonstrated. A major focus here was to clarify the importance of ECA3 in responding to Mn deficiency and toxicity using a range of mutants. We show that ECA3 localizes to the trans-Golgi and plays a major role in response to Mn deficiency with severe effects seen in eca3 nramp1 nramp2 under low Mn supply. ECA3 plays a minor role in Mn-toxicity tolerance, but only when the cis-Golgi-localized MTP11 is non-functional. We also use mutants and overexpressors to determine the relative contributions of MTP members to Mn homeostasis. The trans-Golgi-localized MTP10 plays a role in Mn-toxicity tolerance, but this is only revealed in mutants when MTP8 and MTP11 are non-functional and when overexpressed in mtp11 mutants. MTP8 and MTP10 confer greater Mn-toxicity resistance to the pmr1 yeast mutant than MTP11, and an important role for the first aspartate in the fifth transmembrane domain DxxxD motif is demonstrated. Overall, new insight into the relative influence of key transporters in Mn homeostasis is provided.

Acute exposure to diesel exhaust induces central nervous system stress and altered learning and memory in honey bees.

For effective foraging, many insect pollinators rely on the ability to learn and recall floral odours, behaviours that are associated with a complex suite of cellular processes. Here, we investigated how acute exposure to a high-dose of diesel exhaust (containing 19.8 and 17.5 ppm of NO and NO2, respectively) affected associative learning behaviour of honey bees (Apis mellifera) and expression of a ubiquitous heat shock protein, HSP70, in their central nervous system (CNS). To determine whether exposure to diesel exhaust would alter their tolerance to a subsequent abiotic stress, we further subjected individuals to heat stress. Diesel exhaust exposure decreased honey bees' ability to learn and recall a conditioned odour stimulus. Whilst there was no significant difference in CNS HSP70 expression between honey bees exposed to either diesel exhaust or clean air across the entire duration of the experiment (3.5 h), there was a significant effect of time and a significant interaction between exposure treatment and time. This interaction was investigated using correlation analyses, which demonstrated that only in the diesel exhaust exposed honey bees was there a significant positive correlation between HSP70 expression and time. Furthermore, there was a 44% reduction in honey bee individuals that were able to recall the odour 72 h after diesel exposure compared with clean air control individuals. Moreover, diesel exhaust affected A. mellifera in a way that reduced their ability to survive a second subsequent stressor. Such negative effects of air pollution on learning, recall, and stress tolerance has potential to reduce foraging efficiency and pollination success of individual honey bees.

OsMTP11 is localised at the Golgi and contributes to Mn tolerance.

Membrane transporters play a key role in obtaining sufficient quantities of manganese (Mn) but also in protecting against Mn toxicity. We have characterized OsMTP11, a member of the Cation Diffusion Facilitator/Metal Tolerance Protein (CDF/MTP) family of metal cation transporters in Oryza sativa. We demonstrate that OsMTP11 functions in alleviating Mn toxicity as its expression can rescue the Mn-sensitive phenotype of the Arabidopsis mtp11-3 knockout mutant. When expressed stably in Arabidopsis and transiently in rice and tobacco, it localises to the Golgi. OsMTP11 partially rescues the Mn-hypersensitivity of the pmr1 yeast mutant but only slightly alleviates the Zn sensitivity of the zrc1 cot1 yeast mutant. Overall, these results suggest that OsMTP11 predominantly functions as a Mn-transporting CDF with lower affinity for Zn. Site-directed mutagenesis studies revealed four substitutions in OsMTP11 that appear to alter its transport activity. OsMTP11 harbouring a substitution of leucine 150 to a serine fully rescued pmr1 Mn-sensitivity at all concentrations tested. The other substitutions, including those at conserved DxxxD domains, reduced complementation of pmr1 to different levels. This indicates their importance for OsMTP11 function and is a starting point for refining transporter activity/specificity.

Diesel exhaust rapidly degrades floral odours used by honeybees.

Honeybees utilise floral odours when foraging for flowers; we investigated whether diesel exhaust pollution could interrupt these floral odour stimuli. A synthetic blend of eight floral chemicals, identified from oilseed rape, was exposed to diesel exhaust pollution. Within one minute of exposure the abundances of four of the chemicals were significantly lowered, with two components rendered undetectable. Honeybees were trained to recognise the full synthetic odour mix; altering the blend, by removing the two chemicals rendered undetectable, significantly reduced the ability of the trained honeybees to recognize the altered odour. Furthermore, we found that at environmentally relevant levels the mono-nitrogen oxide (NOx) fraction of the exhaust gases was a key facilitator of this odour degradation. Such changes in recognition may impact upon a honeybee's foraging efficiency and therefore the pollination services that they provide.