Dr. Michele Mansfield
A plant pathologist by trade, I am coming to really appreciate the world of pollen and pollinators! My main interests lie in diagnostic method development. In April of 2021 I joined the Grozinger Lab to help develop and launch the PSU Pollen and Honey Diagnostic Lab. The primary diagnostic tool in this service uses nested PCR for metabarcoding pollen DNA and combines this with next generation sequencing (the Illumina® platform) and a bioinformatics pipeline developed by Eric Wafula (DePamphilis Lab) for data analysis. The goal is to (1) be able to identify what plants are present in a pollen or honey sample (2) determine how much each plant contributes to the total floral fingerprint of a sample and (3) provide this information to beekeepers and researchers in an accessible, online and user-friendly platform. This work is based on Dr. Douglas Sponsler’s initial metabarcoding protocols for his post-doc work in the Grozinger Lab (Sponsler et al 2020. Characterizing the floral resources of a North American metropolis using a honey bee foraging assay. Ecosphere Vol. 11 v 4). I continue to refine the methodology behind these diagnostic methods for honey and pollen and hope to offer this service to beekeepers and researchers alike in 2022. As an alternative to full sample metabarcoding, I also plan to design a plant-specific assay that will be able to identify target plants of interest in pollen and honey. For example, some individuals might only be interested in the presence of a few specific plants (honey locust, white clover, etc.), rather than knowing the identity of every plant in their sample. Although limited in what plants are identified, this assay would be considerably less expensive with a quicker turnaround time than full metabarcoding. As part of this work, PA beekeepers across the state helped assemble a list of 16-20 seasonal (spring, summer, fall) plants of interest for this targeted assay that I also hope to offer in 2021.
In addition to using molecular methods to characterize pollen samples, I also work with Dr. Natalie Boyle to prepare PSU Arboretum-collected (and other Pennsylvania sources) pollen samples for slide fixation. These slides are in the process of being photo documented (along with their plant source) and the high-resolution images will be available to users worldwide in online format as part of the PA Pollen Library Project developed by Dr. Boyle.