Fungi carried by beetles 'killing pine forests'
Friday, 03 Oct 2008 02:31
Pathogenic fungi unknowingly carried on back of pine beetles are killing trees
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A new study has found that a pathogenic fungi unknowingly carried on the back of pine beetles are killing whole forests.
The report published in the journal Science today outlines how beetles innocently bore into pine trees to lay eggs but their actions inadvertently leads to the destruction of the tree.
Unknown to the arthropod, mites connected to the beetle release a pathogenic fungus once inside the bark which seals the fate of the pine tree.
In response to the mites' actions the mother beetle releases actinomycetes, a bacteria that neutralises the toxic fungi, by means of a tiny fatty acid.
While the actinomycetes saves the baby beetles, the larvae-friendly entomocorticium fungi carried by the mother softens up the pine, allowing the fledgling beetles to eat not only the fungi but the tree itself.
"So you have a beetle, a mite, a tree, two kinds of fungi, and a bacterium," said Jon Clardy, of Harvard Medical School.
"Discovering this particular bacterium, and the active molecule, has added the molecular dimension to this chemical ecology of this complex multi-lateral system. It highlights the importance of bacteria in ways that people don't really even think about."
"It's becoming clear that symbiotic relationships between plants, animals, and microbes are essential for the diversification of life and evolution of organisms," Cameron Currie, from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, added.
"This is an example of a system where we have insights into the importance of the diversity of microbes. We believe that this type of mutualism is widespread."