In fewer than a dozen generations bumblebee-pollinated plants were coaxed to develop traits that made them even more pleasing to the bees. Christopher Intagliata reports.

由大黄蜂传粉的植物没用上十几代，就演化出了一些更受蜜蜂欢迎的特性。克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔报道。

撰文/播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔(Christopher Intagliata)

翻译：郭鑫鹏

审校：杨枭

Honeybees are the charismatic microfauna of the pollination world. But flies, bumblebees, butterflies and moths-they all pollinate, too. With varying degrees of success. The poorer ones are technically referred to as ‘inefficient pollinators.’ “Those that do visit but transfer very little pollen in their visit.” Florian Schiestl, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Zurich.

蜜蜂是传粉界的超凡选手。但是苍蝇、大黄蜂、蝴蝶和飞蛾，它们在不同的成功程度上也是传粉者。更差的一些被看作“无能的传粉者”。“它们也拜访植物但是只传播很少的花粉。“苏黎世大学进化生物学家弗洛里安·席斯特尔（Florian Schiestl）说。

Schiestl and his colleague grew field mustard plants, and exposed them to two types of pollinators: efficient bumblebees and inefficient hoverflies. After just 11 generations, they found that the plants visited by bumblebees were taller, twice as fragrant, and reflected more UV light-a visual signal for bees. And those factors made the progeny even more attractive to bumblebees at the end of the experiment: a sign the plants had adapted to their pollinators’ preferences.

席斯特尔和他的同事种植田芥菜，然后把它们放在有两种类型传粉者的环境中：高效率的大黄蜂和低效率的食蚜蝇。在11代之后，他们发现大黄蜂授粉的植物长得更高，香气倍增，以及反射更多紫外光，而紫外光是对蜜蜂的可视信号。这些因素让它们后代在实验后期对大黄蜂更加有吸引力：这标志着植物适应了它们传粉者的偏好。

But the plants that got a fly-by from the flies? They grew shorter. Less fragrant. And actually adapted to do more self-pollination. Because hoverflies are lousy pollinators. The study is in the journal Nature Communications. [Daniel D.L. Gervasi and Florian P. Schiestl, Real-time divergent evolution in plants driven by pollinators]

但是那些被食蚜蝇光临的植物呢？它们生长得更矮，香气更少。变得更倾向于自花授粉。因为食蚜蝇是非常糟糕的传粉者。研究发表在期刊《自然通讯》上。

So with honeybees in peril, what happens if we lose them? “This will trigger an evolutionary response in the plants. For example, if flies take over as more important pollinators, as they used to be in the past, then very likely we’ll have some evolutionary change going on.”

所以当蜜蜂处于危机之中，如果我们失去它们会发生什么？“这会引发一场植物的进化反馈。比如说，如果蝇类取代蜜蜂成为更重要的传粉者，像它们过去那样，那么我们很可能会看到一些进化突变。“

And is the change is self-pollination, that could be trouble. “Self-pollination leads to reduction of genetic variability in the population, and this can be a problem for the plants, because they have a reduced ability to evolve resistance against diseases.” Meaning that if we lose the pollinators, it’s the plants’ genomes that may go to seed.

如果变化的结果是自花授粉，那会出现一些麻烦。“自花授粉导致个体基因多样性下降，这对于植物会是一个问题，因为它们进化出对抗疾病的能力会下降。“意味着如果我们失去了传粉者，那植物自身的不良基因便会不断传下去。

-Christopher Intagliata

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/pollinators-shape-plants-to-their-preference/