Data from: Testing adaptive hypotheses for an evolutionarily conserved trait through slow-motion videos of pollinators
Data files
Sep 12, 2025 version files 53.63 KB
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DyeSwab.csv
406 B
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Final_Analysis_Dryad.R
27.65 KB
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MainData.csv
22.19 KB
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README.md
3.38 KB
Abstract
Traits conserved across evolutionary time often provide compelling examples of key adaptations for a given taxonomic group. Tetradynamy is the presence of four long stamens plus two short stamens within a flower and is conserved across most of the roughly 4000 species in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. While this differentiation in stamens is hypothesized to play a role in pollination efficiency, very little is known about the potential function of the two stamen types. The present study sheds new light on this mystery using wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), a widespread and well-studied tetradynamous plant. We used data collected from slow-motion videos of pollinators visiting wild radish flowers to test three non-mutually exclusive adaptive hypotheses: 1) short and long stamens are specialized for either feeding or pollinating, 2) short and long stamens are specialized for different pollinator taxa, and 3) the presence of short and long stamens increases pollinator movement and thus effectiveness. We find evidence consistent with hypothesis three, but no evidence for hypotheses one or two. Thus, tetradynamy may be an adaptation for generalized pollination, enabling effective visits by the variety of pollinators visiting most species of Brassicaceae.
The data contained in these files was generated from close observation of slow-motion video footage by the same experimenter for each variable.
Description of Files
MainData.csv
Data related to slow-motion video analysis, including plant information, anther and stigma contact, and number of movements
Missing data are indicated by "NA"
Basic Video Info in Columns A:F
- VideoID: unique individual video identifier
- PlantID: unique individual plant identifier with the following format - "PopulationCode FamilyCode-Replicate"
- PopulationCode: BINY = natural population, Sep = separation-selected, Exsertion = exsertion-selected
- FamilyCode: unique 3-5 character code for a given maternal seed family
- Replicate: individual plant number between 0 and 9, where replicate 0 is indicated by the lack of a hyphen and number
- Date: date of observations
- Year: year of observations
- Pollinator: taxa of visiting pollinator
- VideoLength: total length of visit in 1/8 real-time seconds
Feeding Info in Columns G:N
- G:K are binary columns in which 1 indicates the visit included foraging in the given category, 0 indicates lack of foraging, and ? indicates uncertainty ("Short" = short stamen anthers, "Long" = long stamen anthers)
- L:N summarize the info from G:K in different ways
- Foraging: whether the visit included foraging on nectar, pollen, or both
- Feed_All: for visits including pollen-foraging, whether foraging was on short stamen anthers, long stamen anthers, or both
- Feed_Bin: same as Feed_All but groups "Long" and "Short" into "One"
Contact Info in Columns O:AM
Columns have the following format: "ResponseVariable_BodySection_FlowerPart"
- ResponseVariable is what kind of contact is being recorded and can take three values:
- sec: duration of contact in 1/8 real-time seconds
- bin: binary contact, 1 = contacted and 0 = not contacted
- n: count of body sections contacted (sums binary contact with Legs, Ventral, Side)
- BodySection is the part of the pollinator body contacted and can take four values: Ventral, Side, Legs, or Total (sum of prior 3)
- FlowerPart is the part of the flower contacted by the pollinator and can take 4 values: S (short stamen anthers), L (long stamen anthers), Stigma, or Anthers (both short and long stamen anthers)
Movement Info in Columns AN:AR
- Between_Moves: # of movements from feeding on one stamen to another
- Within_Moves: # of movements within stamen types, combining movements from long to long stamen ("Long.Long_Moves") and movements from short to short stamen ("Short.Short_Moves")
- Total_Moves: total # of movements from one stamen to another
DyeSwab.csv
Data from small preliminary test in which 3 bees were swabbed with gelatin cubes after visiting flowers with short and long stamens marked with different colors of fluorescent dye.
- ID: unique individual bee identifier
- BodySection: the body section swabbed
- NParticles: count of dye particles contained in gelatin swab
- StamenType: type of stamen matching the color of counted particles
Final_Analysis_Dryad.R
R script of all analyses used in the paper.
- Details provided as comments within script.
- The script was run in RStudio running R v. 4.4.2.