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[Bunjov AT aol.com]

I started researching this a while back because of  the huge burn areas here 
in the San Bernardino National Forest. The effect  these beetles are having 
on 
the forest's re-growth efforts are devastating to  humankind, but perhaps 
Gaia does know what she's doing, after all...and it  would pay us just to sit 
back and stay tuned?
Sandy
Mid-Mojave

Forestry,  Wildlife & Fisheries News

 
Scientists discover bacteria aiding Southern pine  beetles
By Karen Brasher
MSU College of Forest Resources 
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Researchers may have found the secret to controlling a  
tiny insect that robs Mississippi landowners of an estimated 12 million cubic 
 
feet of pine forest each year. 
Though only an eighth of an inch long, the Southern pine beetle is a big pest 
 and difficult to contain. Scientists at Mississippi State University’s 
Forest  and Wildlife Research Center, along with colleagues at the University 
of  
Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest  
Service, have made a breakthrough with the discovery of an 
antibiotic-producing  
bacterium. 
Beetles use the bacterium to protect their food against other microbes.  
Published in the refereed journal Science, the research found that adult  
female Southern pine beetles carry a previously unknown bacterium. The 
bacterium  
produces a unique antibiotic that is highly effective against a fungus that 
can  attack the beetles’ food source.  
“The beetles have established an association with a beneficial fungus,” said 
 Cetin Yuceer, forestry assistant professor and co-investigator in the 
finding.  “Beetles bore holes through the outer bark of Southern pines to 
create 
galleries  within the inner bark and phloem. During this process, the females 
inoculate the  galleries with this beneficial fungus, which is carried in a 
specialized beetle  storage compartment.” 
The fungus colonizes the galleries and serves as an important food source for 
 developing beetle larvae, Yuceer added.  
However, an antagonistic fungus can out-compete the beneficial fungus in  
these galleries and disrupt Southern pine beetle larval development.  
“Our findings indicate that another beneficial connection also has been  
established between the Southern pine beetle and the newly discovered 
bacterium,  
which produces an antibiotic that inhibits the antagonistic fungus,” Yuceer  
said.  
Beetles are basically protecting their food from pathogens using a bacterium  
with a potent chemical inhibitor.  
“Disruption of this newly identified relationship between Southern pine  
beetles and bacteria could be the way to control infestation of pine trees by 
 
beetles,” said Jim Shepard, head of MSU’s Department of Forestry. 
“Southern pine beetles are extremely difficult to control, and practically no 
 effective pest management tactics have been developed,” Shepard added.  
Identifying beneficial associations, such as this one, could be an effective  
strategy in the search for new, bioactive natural products to protect plants, 
 
animals and humans. 
“Perhaps some of those much-needed small molecules are waiting to be  
discovered in our backyard trees,” Yuceer  said.

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