Saturday, November 22, 2014

Gene for Natural Resistance to Spruce Budworm

White spruces in Eastern North America have been devastated by spruce budworms. These are moths whose caterpillars are dangerous to spruce populations due to their consumption of white spruce needles and balsam fir. The most recent paramount invasion by this species occurred between 1970 and 1990, resulting in the loss of half a million cubic meters of wood in just Quebec alone. Conifer trees continue to be negatively affected by the existence of spruce budworms, although scientists have come much closer to solving this problem with a recent discovery.



Researchers from the University of Oxford, the University of British Columbia, and Université Laval have uncovered a gene in white spruces that provides natural resistance to the spruce budworm. This was done through analysis in which the researchers compared the genomes of the more resilient trees to those that were more negatively impacted by the feeding activity of the spruce budworms. They found that the betaglucosidase-1 gene had much higher levels, about 1,000 times higher, of gene expression in the resistant conifers than the non-resistant ones. The protein encoded by this gene was isolated, and found to contribute to chemical reactions that ultimately produce two compounds that have shown to be toxic to the spruce budworm. Thus, those trees with increased levels of expression of the gene that encodes this protein are more resistant to the budworm due to high production of what is essentially a natural insecticide.


The betaglucosidase-1 gene is present in all individuals of the white spruce population; however, only certain trees have a high enough level of expression to provide for sufficient resistance to the harmful spruce budworm. Scientists believe that they can utilize this information to create white spruces that experience increased expression of this gene, so that they remain resistant to this insect invader. This would prevent the further destruction of these large forests of white spruce conifers.

I find this article to be very interesting. Normally when looking into genetic studies, I have seen many examples of different alleles for genes or mutations to genes that result in differences among various organisms in a population. For this scientific discovery, the various individuals of the white spruce population all have the gene interest (the betaglucosidase-1 gene); however, the differing level of expression of the gene to encode the protein makes the difference. I find it fascinating that there is 1,000 times greater expression of the gene, and that this provides for production of enough of the protein to give the conifers resistance through production of a natural insecticide. Hopefully this information will allow researchers to be successful in protecting white spruce populations from the spruce budworms.


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