Team:British Columbia

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The pine beetle outbreak in B.C. is an unprecedented epidemic. Millions of acres of pine trees have been already killed by the mountain pine beetle (MPB). This creature, native to B.C., formerly killed a few trees each year and then froze to death in the winter. Unfortunately, the increase in temperature each winter now allows the MPB to survive each winter. Its population has grown substantially over the past 15 years and natural predators can’t stop it. The government of Canada and B.C.’s Ministry of Forestry has already spent over $956 million (http://www.gov.bc.ca/fortherecord/beetle/be_economy.html) dollars to save the pine trees in B.C. but no permanent solution has been found so far. Something must be done before the MPB spreads east across Canada and ravishes all pine trees in its path.

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.