DETERMINATION OF THE FLORAL COMPOSITION OF HONEY BY METHODS OF PALYNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND METABARCODING OF ECOLOGICAL DNA

Abstract

Global climate change on Earth has a significant impact on various populations of living organisms. In recent years, bee populations have been declining in all countries of the world. The main reasons for this phenomenon: the use of chemicals in crop production, urbanization and sowing of vast territories with monocultures, the widespread use of GMO plants, climate change, pathogens and bee diseases.

Determining the botanical composition of honey is an urgent task in the study of bee ecology. Data in the form of taxonomic characteristics of the floral composition of honey can be used to develop measures to protect bee populations, determine the medicinal value, improve the quality and production of honey. The traditional approach to studying the plant composition of honey is palynological analysis of pollen based on microscopic examination, which is labor-intensive, time-consuming and requires special palynological knowledge. The development of next-generation sequencing methods has made it possible to use the amplicon metabarcoding method to determine the floral composition of honey at the gene level. The article describes methods for determining the botanical composition of honey using the classical palynological method and using metabarcoding of environmental DNA of honey, and describes their advantages and disadvantages.