Saturday, November 22, 2014

Natural resistance gene against spruce budworm found



The spruce budworm is a moth whose caterpillars feed on the needles of the white spruce needles. This pest is very destructive to the forest of Eastern North America. The last major outbreak had an estimated loss of half a billion cubic meters in Quebec alone.

A research team consisting of Professors Eric Bauce, Joerg Bohlmann, John Mackay, and their postgrads discovered a gene in spruces that were relatively unaffected by the budworm outbreak. This discovery was made by comparing the genome of spruces that were resistant and those that were non-resistant trees. 

They measured the expression levels of around 24,000 genes in the two groups of trees. They found that one gene called betaglucosidase-1 whose gene expression in the needles of the resilient trees were higher than that of the non-resilient trees.


The protein encoded by the gene was then produced. Test were conducted that indicated that the protein produce chemicals that were toxic to the budworm. The trees with a high expression of the gene had a natural resistance to the pest.

This research is very important to the future of  spruce forest in the Easter North American region. The discovery of the gene can help in the reforesting of the areas affected by the pest. Trees with the higher expression of the resistance gene can be planted. By planting these trees it decreases the risk that the entire tree population in a particular area could be affected by the budworm. There may be many more naturally resistant genes in other species affected by a specific pest to be discovered in the future.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141121102920.htm
Related article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165865/

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