The Little Things That Run the World: How Microbes Affect Pollination (WL)

Think of your favorite flower and the bumblebee who visits. Pollination would not happen without interactions between plants and animals, but it also depends on millions of microscopic bacteria and fungi that inhabit nectar. In this talk, Hannah Machiorlete, master’s student in Biology at William & Mary, will explain how microbes act as chemical engineers to change nectar’s scent and sugars, impacting pollination and plant reproduction. Learn about new research into microbes that act as “middlemen” in the plant-pollinator exchange, and what this means for the plants we rely on.

The Emerging Scholars Series is a partnership between the Arts & Sciences Graduate Center at William & Mary and the Williamsburg Regional Library. The series features W&M graduate students and postdocs in talks hosted by the WRL intended to bring cutting-edge research to the local community.

Emerging Scholars is an exciting ongoing series highlighting the latest research on a variety of topics coming out of William & Mary’s graduate programs in Arts & Sciences.