Question at position 13 You are conducting a study on pathogen spillover at a wildflower meadow. After analyzing samples, you find that 78% of wild bees visiting flowers previously visited by honey bees carry honey bee-specific pathogens. What is the most likely mode of transmission?Direct contact between honey bees and wild beesAirborne transmission through sporesPheromones attracting pathogens to wild beesPathogen spillover occurring on shared flowers单项选择题
A
Direct contact between honey bees and wild bees
B
Airborne transmission through spores
C
Pheromones attracting pathogens to wild bees
D
Pathogen spillover occurring on shared flowers

Question

Question at position 13 You are conducting a study on pathogen spillover at a wildflower meadow. After analyzing samples, you find that 78% of wild bees visiting flowers previously visited by honey bees carry honey bee-specific pathogens. What is the most likely mode of transmission?Direct contact between honey bees and wild beesAirborne transmission through sporesPheromones attracting pathogens to wild beesPathogen spillover occurring on shared flowers单项选择题

A

Direct contact between honey bees and wild bees

B

Airborne transmission through spores

C

Pheromones attracting pathogens to wild bees

D

Pathogen spillover occurring on shared flowers

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

When evaluating transmission modes in a spillover context, we look for evidence linking the source (honey bees) to the recipient (wild bees) through an intermediate shared substrate or environment.
Option 1: Direct contact between honey bees and wild bees. While physical contact could enable transmission, the scenario emphasizes that the wild bees acquire pathogens after visiting flowers previously visited by honey bees, not from direct encounters between bees themselves. This weakens the direct-contact claim.
Option 2: Airborne transmission through spores. Pathogens of honey bees are unlikely to be disseminated as airborne spores in this context, and the data point specifically ties the infection to shared floral visitation rather than air movement of spores, making airborne spread less plausible.
Option 3: Pheromones attracting pathogens to wild bees. This option misinterprets chemical signaling; pathogens do not typically use pheromones to attract hosts. Pheromones in bees influence behavior, not the mechanism by which a pathogen would travel from honey bees to wild bees.
Option 4: Pathogen spillover occurring on shared flowers. This best matches the observed pattern: wild bees visiting flowers that honey bees previously visited harbor the same honey bee–specific pathogens, indicating that the shared flowers act as a site of spillover, contaminating subsequent visitors.
In summary, the correlation between pathogens found in wild bees and their history of visiting flowers used by honey bees points to a shared floral environment as the crossover point, rather than direct contact, airborne spread, or pheromone-mediated attraction. Therefore, this option provides the most coherent explanation for the data.