a John Macdougall snip.. 
I see many references to "pollen quality" as being how bees decide which pollen is preferable. As far as I can make out, "pollen quality" relates to essential fatty acid and/or amino acid content. However, I am getting out of my depth here.

my comments...
like John this topic is way above my pay grade.  It is however the essence of Pierre Lau work at the Texas A&M (Rangel) Lab.  As far as I know from my talks with Pierre (I try to keep up with their research as best as I can) the attractiveness of pollen is not necessarily related to amino acid content or quality (at least in other species amino acid balance would also be a part of quality issues).  I suspect it is much as Peter Borst described in one of his comments here in that is a multi variant that is related to at least 3 sensory ques.

Gene in California enjoying the excellent weather... 

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