Assignment No: 2Title: SeminarTopic: Pollinators-future outlookSubmitted to: Dr Mubashar HussainSubmitted by: Nadia IlyasRoll No: 17130814-015Course Code: Zoo-460Programe: M.Sc IITable of Contents TOC o “1-3” h z u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc517596803 h 3Possible options PAGEREF _Toc517596804 h 3Self-pollination PAGEREF _Toc517596805 h 3Self-pollinating plants PAGEREF _Toc517596806 h 4Pollination by humans PAGEREF _Toc517596807 h 4Creation of new insecticides bacteria harmless to bees PAGEREF _Toc517596808 h 5Synthetic biology-creation of new cells PAGEREF _Toc517596809 h 5Robot bees PAGEREF _Toc517596810 h 6Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc517596811 h 7Threats of Pollinators: PAGEREF _Toc517596812 h 7Colony collapse in honey bees: PAGEREF _Toc517596813 h 7Humming birds thrive PAGEREF _Toc517596814 h 8Lepidopterans PAGEREF _Toc517596815 h 8A horizon scan of future threats PAGEREF _Toc517596816 h 9Methods: PAGEREF _Toc517596817 h 9 Pollinators-future outlookIntroduction: Faced with a huge reduction in the bee’s population, there are some future outlooks. Bees are responsible for the pollination of fruits that we eat.
This does not augur well for our future food supply. Possible options are following.Possible options:Self-pollinationPollination by humansCreation of new insecticides bacteria harmless to beesSynthetic biology-creation of new cellsRobot beesSelf-pollination: Plants and in particular trees have mostly evolved along the lines of cross pollination with the help of bees,wasps,butterflies,bats,moths,birds and other animals. The basic reason for that is cross breeding brings new variety of genes into theHereditary system, thus making the species fitter, stronger to withstand climate changings and more resistant to diseases. There is possibility that mutations may bring in new variants with perhaps new advantages. Figure no 1: Self pollinationSelf-pollinating plants: Mostly it occurs for annual flowers and plants but also for trees.
One example of self-pollination is Cleistogamy, which occurs before the flower opens. The pollen is released from anther within the flower or the pollen on the anther goes down a tube from the styles to ovules. Mostly this happens for certain type of orchids and grasses.
We can alter the genetic makeup of plants and trees through the seeds in such a way that they can all be self-pollination. Grafting of young trees can produce self-pollination.Pollination by humans: Our society will soon be faced with the problem of potentially unemployed masses of people. The solution is that countries like china use humans for cross pollination by means of brushes.
Figure no 2: pollination by humansThis is already being done for apple and pear orchids in Sichuan province. Apple and pear are very valuable crops at the top of fruit chain. Scarcity of bees makes human pollination economically sensible.in Brazil, humans are used for pollinating the passion fruit. Creation of new insecticides bacteria harmless to bees: DNA is the basis of all living cells.
Its structure is simple yet beautifully double helix. Two are strands of helix are tied together by pairs of molecular nucleobases. They are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, which pair up four nucleobases.
A with T and G with C. In this way new insecticides bacteria also created which are harmless for bees.Synthetic biology-creation of new cells: In his new book, life at the speed of life, from the double helix to the down of digital life, Venter describes how to synthesize a new functional genome. The starting point is a most simple goat bacterium that is one million bases long.using the 4 base chemicals A, T, G and C from the laboratory, they synthesized the complete genome of the bacterium.
This chemical was then injected into an empty host cell and new bacterium proved to be an accurate enough version of the original goat bacterium that it was able to manufacture a specified sequence of proteins.mage of JCVI-syn3.0 by Tom Deerick and Mark Ellisman of the National Center for Imaging and Microscopy Research at the University of California at San Diego.
Figure no: 3Robot bees: Harvard university micro biotics lab has been making robot trees. This robot bee has a 3 cm wingspan and only 80 milligrams. It can perch on a surface and take off again using electrostatic adhesion and it is filled with some vision, optical flow and motion sensors. This robot bee is tied to power source. Scientists at Cornell university are developing a neuromorphic chip processor ,which would copy the large number of neurons in the neural network in the brain.it will be fitted with camera ,expanded antennae for tactile feedback, contact sensors on feet and air flow sensors that look like tiny hairs. We can produce enough robot trees. Figure no 4: Robot beesConclusion: Bees are disappearing at fast rate.
They are important for pollinating the fruits that we eat, cotton clothes that we wear etc.Inspite of all future options listed above society would still do best to put its efforts on making bees survive by reducing the threats to them such as harmful insecticides. Surely it is our power to do if we realize they are precious to us.1Threats of Pollinators:Colony collapse in honey bees: Honey bees are maintained in managed colonies of tens of thousands of bees living within one hive under the care of beekeepers.
Effects of environmental pesticides and herbicides are very severe for pollinators. Climate changings also effect the pollinators. Figure no: 5Humming birds thrive: Humming birds plays an important role as a pollinators. Their population decreasing day by day.
Some species of hummingbirds in the northern ranges of the Andes face a more threats. Climate change is also a threat .It effects the pollinators.
Therefore climate changings, habit, habitat loss and forest fires could quickly change the status of humming birds species. Figure no: 6Lepidopterans: Butterflies and moths serve as pollinators but in very different ways.Their species also in threat due to sprays .In this way it effects the pollinators. 2A horizon scan of future threats and opportunities for pollinators and pollination:Methods: We followed a horizon scanning approach based on the Delphi method.
The same approach has been used since 2010 to generate global horizon scans for conservation and thus it provides a reliable and accepted methodology. The exercise was carried out by a core group of 17 pollinator experts balanced across area of expertise and geographic knowledge.One member from the agrochemical industry accepted, but withdrew before the first stage of process was completed. 3
