Extraction of DNA from Eurasia's Spruce Bark Beetle Successful; Revealed an Entire Genome of the Forest Pests

A new study shows a fully detailed mapping of the entire Eurasian spruce bark beetle genome. The successful mapping allowed the experts to study more about the effective options of pest controls against bark beetles. The recent findings could contribute to the solution that will prevent the destruction of over 100 million cubic meters of spruce forests induced by the presence of bark beetles in both Europe and Asia.

Spruce Bark Beetle in Eurasia's Forests

The attempt to map the bark beetles' genome information is essential to understand more how the Eurasian pests became one of the most destructive species in bountiful forests. This also adds additional information as to why the species managed to conquer vast spruce regions in both the European and the Asian continents.

The study revealed that the Eurasian bark beetle indeed contains numerous genes. Most of these genes are essential to the activities of species and commonly helps them to penetrate various types of materials found in the spruce forests such as the cell wall of plants. However, the research mentioned that the abundant gene pool of the bark beetles is being paid with a heavy price, as there is no single gene present in the animals that could help them withstand and repel foreign substances that could possibly hurt them. For example, even the typical resins in trees are found toxic to the bark beetles.

The bark beetles, also known as the Ips typographus, have been extracted of their full genome for a detailed analysis and development of effective pesticides to save the remaining spruce forests in Eurasia. To formulate the pesticides, experts will utilize the gathered genetic expressions from the bark beetle and observe it together with the RNA interference or RNAi.

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Entire Genome of Ips typographus

RNAi is among the modern genetic tools that could cover the expression of the genes in the most precise approach. In the study, it was said that that the RNAi molecular tool will be managed over the double-stranded RNA for fusing on insects. The approach will eventually pause the targeted genes or even reduce their expressions without modifying the overall genome cluster. The method, together with the detailed full genome of bark beetles, is an effective way to analyze how a specific gene influences the biological growth and adaptive evolution of the spruce first pests. If successful, the approach will be among the conventional but most advanced methods on facilitating pesticides for other forests in the future.

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences' department of Plan Protection Biology and Czech University of Life Sciences Prague expert Fredrik Schlyter said in a PhysOrg report that the bark beetle's genus Ips have common relatives present in some regions in North America. The expert added that through the Eurasian spruce bark beetle study, the species' genome will serve as helpful data for the mapping of American studies on their own indigenous pests.

The study has examined 100 beetles to match their extracted DNAs and sort the common links between their genomes. The overall research was published in the journal Communications Biology, titled "A highly-contiguous genome assembly of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, provides insight into a major forest pest."