ArticleScientific reports2017
Nicotine in floral nectar pharmacologically influences bumblebee learning of floral features.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- Utilizing multimodal cortical parcellations to identify novel regions of the human cerebral cortex associated with substance use disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Pollination ecology and breeding system of Justicia gendarussa Burm. f. (Acanthaceae): first report of fruit set through supplementary obligatory-xenogamous pollination.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2025Article
- Nectar metabolomes contribute to pollination syndromes.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Chronic exposure to nicotine in diet enhances the lethal effect of an entomopathogenic fungus in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior.Biology open · 2025Article
- A guide to sunflowers: floral resource nutrition for bee health and key pollination syndromes.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Article
- Strawberry varieties differ in pollinator-relevant floral traits.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Invasive ant learning is not affected by seven potential neuroactive chemicals.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Learning modifies attention during bumblebee visual search.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2024Article
- Critical roles of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in olfactory memory formation and retrieval in crickets.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Radiocarbon Flux Measurements Reveal Mechanistic Insight into Heat-Stress Induction of Nicotine Biosynthesis inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- To each their own! Nectar plasticity within a flower mediates distinct ecological interactions.AoB PLANTS · 2023Article
- Secondary Metabolites in Nectar-Mediated Plant-Pollinator Relationships.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Discovery of octopamine and tyramine in nectar and their effects on bumblebee behavior.iScience · 2022Article
- Into a dilemma of plants: the antagonism between chemical defenses and growth.Plant molecular biology · 2022Review
- Sweet solutions: nectar chemistry and quality.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Comparative metagenomics reveals expanded insights into intra- and interspecific variation among wild bee microbiomes.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Specific phytochemicals in floral nectar up-regulate genes involved in longevity regulation and xenobiotic metabolism, extending mosquito life span.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Evolutionary and Ecological Considerations on Nectar-Mediated Tripartite Interactions in Angiosperms and Their Relevance in the Mediterranean Basin.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many plants defend themselves against herbivores by chemical deterrents in their tissues and the presence of such substances in floral nectar means that pollinators often encounter them when foraging. The effect of such substances on the foraging behaviour of pollinators is poorly understood. Using artificial flowers in tightly-controlled laboratory settings, we examined the effects of the alkaloid nicotine on bumblebee foraging performance. We found that bumblebees confronted simultaneously with two equally rewarded nicotine-containing and nicotine-free flower types are deterred only by unnaturally high nicotine concentrations. This deterrence disappears or even turns into attraction at lower nectar-relevant concentrations. The alkaloid has profound effects on learning in a dose-dependent manner. At a high natural dose, bees learn the colour of a nicotine-containing flower type more swiftly than a flower type with the same caloric value but without nicotine. Furthermore, after experiencing flowers containing nicotine in any tested concentration, increasing numbers of bumblebees stay more faithful to these flowers, even if they become a suboptimal choice in terms of reward. These results demonstrate that alkaloids enhance pollinator flower constancy, opening new perspectives in co-evolutionary process between plants and pollinators.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.