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Investigating the effects of bee salivary enzymes on incised Brassica rapa maturation

CSEF · 2023 Plant Biology Honorable_mention Award

Ho Cadence · 10

Overview

The symbiosis between pollinators and plants have been examined in many previous studies. Research at ETH Zürich showed that bee-bite damaged crops flowered days to weeks faster than non-bitten crops. Additionally, there was a similar significant difference in growth period between mechanically incised and bee-incised plants. This project aims to investigate a possible relationship between enzymes secreted in proboscis saliva that may interact with the damaged plant through the incision process. If a relationship between the compounds and maturation exists, the compounds could be applied as a low-cost chemical solution for speeding up plant growth. Experimental groups consisted of Brassica rapa (Wisconsin fastplants) grown with incisions and chemical application after eight to nine days, and controls were made up of normally growing and only incised groups. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected every other day, which included stem height, number of leaves, date of flowering, and description of plant color to track growth progress. Lower (.1g/100mL in water) and middle (.5g/100mL in water) concentrations of invertase and diastase solutions showed greater stem height growth and final measurements compared to controls, including the normally incised group. Blooming rates and number of replicates bloomed before harvesting were also higher. The highest (1g/100mL in water) concentration of both enzymes performed worse than controls, which suggests that too high of a concentration might have had a detrimental effect on growth. It can be inferred that a concentration within the range of low and medium is useful for plant growth and could be used to expedite maturation for common crops in horticulture. Future studies should include an investigation on species of plants with a longer growth period for more detailed data analysis, as well as testing other proteins or pheromones that are excreted by bees.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

  • Category Award: HM

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Plant Biology · Entry S1806

Resources

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