I'm growing two different kinds of Arabidopsis. One of them is "wildtype", which just means it's an average plant that you could find outside. The other type is the one with the gene modification, called PAP1-D. I will be comparing the pollen counts of the two different groups to see if the mutation causes a significant change.  

Recently, biologists have observed a phenomenon called "colony collapse": pollinator insects in the wild are rapidly declining. They attribute it to many different causes, like diseases or pesticide use, but one main cause is the loss of foraging habitats. Human expansion decreases plant life, and there aren't enough flowers for bees to collect enough food. My thinking is that if we can modify a gene to increase pollen amounts, we could supplement their diet and improve hive health.

I researched a plant protein called lignin because it supports development of pollen producing structures like the anthers. Research from Borevitz et al links the PAP1-D gene mutation to increased levels of lignin, but their study never investigated its effects on pollen.