The mechanisms by which pollen is digested by honey bees are incompletely understood. Potential methods are thought to include pseudogermination, mechanical disruption, enzymatic breakdown, or osmotic shock. Understanding the role of pseudogermination in this process has been hampered by a lack of tools demonstrating retention of metabolic activity in pollen collected by honey bees. Here, we show that pollen collected by honey bees produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) at robust levels upon germination, suggesting that ROS is a suitable marker of this process in pollen. ROS can be readily found in the digestive tract of honey bees and is localized to pollen grains within the lumen. Finally, manipulating pollen levels in the midgut can change ROS levels in the digestive tract. These data provide evidence of retained metabolic activity in bee-collected pollen that lends support to pseudogermination as a mechanism for pollen digestion in honey bees, and points to novel approaches for better understanding of pollen digestion in this species and beyond.

中文翻译：

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蜜蜂收集的花粉中保留的代谢活性对花粉消化和蜜蜂健康有影响

蜜蜂消化花粉的机制尚不完全清楚。潜在的方法被认为包括假发芽、机械破坏、酶促分解或渗透休克。由于缺乏证明蜜蜂收集的花粉中代谢活性保留的工具，了解假发芽在该过程中的作用受到阻碍。在这里，我们表明蜜蜂收集的花粉在发芽时会产生稳定水平的活性氧 (ROS)，这表明 ROS 是花粉中这一过程的合适标记。ROS 很容易在蜜蜂的消化道中找到，并且定位于腔内的花粉粒。最后，操纵中肠中的花粉水平可以改变消化道中的 ROS 水平。