Team:British Columbia

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  • Beetle Epidemic
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The mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak in British Columbia (B.C), Canada, is the largest and most widespread of its kind in North America, and has reached an unprecedented level since 1995. To date, this epidemic has killed millions of acres of lodgepole pine trees, endangering the forest health, which hosts a wide range of ecosystems, and threatening the economic, social, and cultural stability of our beautiful province. Currently, the area of most intensive outbreak is situated in the interior of British Columbia and is predicted to spread outwards to the rest of the province and to the bordering province of Alberta. And by 2013, according to the B.C Ministry of Forests and Range, mortality of all merchantable pine trees is projected to be as high as 80 percent.

This mountain pine beetle, native to B.C, affects pine trees by laying their eggs under the bark of the tree. However, the only culprit is not the beetle itself, rather the blue stain fungus (Grosmannia clavigera) which lives in symbiosis with the MPB. By laying their eggs, the beetles simultaneously introduce the blue stain fungus into the sapwood, which helps prevent the tree’s natural defences, a resin flow, from repelling and killing attacking beetles. Due to this action, both the beetle and fungus are able to overcome the tree’s defences and colonize the insides of the tree through this dual action. Through this, the fungus cuts off water and nutrient transport within the tree, while beetle larvae feed off the tree. Within a year, the pine tree will die from lack of water and nutrient transport, as its needles will turn red. Mature MPB will leave the dying tree and move on to the next host tree. And in the upcoming years following the attack, the tree will turn gray with very little foliage left on the tree. Throughout this entire process, most wood is unsalvageable, due to the bluish-black stain left behind on the wood by the fungi and consequently the degrading value of the wood. With vast amount of pines being killed, this has also become a fire hazard for B.C forest.

In nature, monoterpenes are synthesized and secreted by trees as a defense against beetles and fungi. In one case, the bluestain fungus and mountain pine beetle are in a symbiotic relationship where the fungus deactivates toxic terpenoids and enables the survival of the beetle, which in turn facilitates the spread of the fungus. Indeed, there is much more to investigate regarding the myriad of different terpenoids and their effects on fungi and beetles. Furthermore, from an industrial point of view, monoterpenes are involved in the production of pharmaceuticals, flavours/fragrances and biofuels.

The 2011 UBC iGEM team aims to address both aspects by engineering and validating yeast that produce monoterpenes with high yield at low cost as a potential system for identifying anti-fungal monoterpenes and other inhibitors. Experimental results will be used to create and refine computational models of the monoterpene production process. A human practices manual will also be developed to discuss potential innovation patents and guidelines for the safe and ethical application of our research results.

In the long term, we envision that results and further research arising from this project may be utilized in industrial applications and to find solutions to the pine beetle epidemic.