Abstract
The recent outbreak of mountain pine beetle (MPB) (
Dendroctonus ponderosae) in British Columbia provided an opportunity to examine genetic variation of differential attack and resistance in a 20-year old lodgepole pine open-pollinated (OP) family trial. Approximately 2,500 individuals from 180 OP parent-tree collections (~14 trees per parent), from several geographic collection zones in B.C., were scored for several traits relating to attack, survival, gallery formation, and infection from the fungi associated with MPB,
Ophiostoma sp. Successful initial attack was assumed by the presence of pitch tubes, and the mean number of pitch tubes per tree (PT#05) (in an area of 10 x 15 cm at breast height) was 1.5 with a range from 0 to 14. Family mean differences for the presence of “green crowns” (in other words, survival) in 2005 (GC05) ranged from 46 to 100 percent, and for pitch tubes present or absent (PTPA05), family means ranged from 7 to 100 percent. Significant levels of genetic variation were found for these two attributes, with the heritability for GC05 being 0.59 (s.e. = 0.28) and 0.43 for PTPA05 (s.e. = 0.26). The correlation between breeding values of 10-year height growth (20-year height or diameter has not been measured) and PTPA05 was 0.22, indicating that faster growing families may be slightly more subject to attack.
Parent Publication
Keywords
mountain pine beetle,
MPB,
Dendroctonus ponderosae,
British Columbia,
lodgepole pine
Citation
Yanchuk, Alvin; Wallin, Kimberly. 2007. Genetic and phenotypic resistance in lodgepole pine to attack by mountain pine beetle. In: Bentz, Barbara; Cognato, Anthony; Raffa, Kenneth, eds. Proceedings from the Third Workshop on Genetics of Bark Beetles and Associated Microorganisms. Proc. RMRS-P-45. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 23
