Flow of oleoresin at attack sites is believed to be a primary defense of pines to the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann. Loblolly pine, Pinus taeda L., is the most abundant pine species growing in the southern United States and is a preferred host of D. frontalis. Phenotypic variation in flow of oleoresin in P. taeda is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors; however, the relative contribution of each is undetermined. In this experiment we measured oleoresin yield and growth on 1,131 ten to eleven year old loblolly pines growing at a site near Pensacola, FL. Trees were progeny from 72 full-sib families generated by crossing 48 parents in a disconnected diallel mating design. To encompass variation in both early- and late-wood, resin yield was measured in September 1999 and May 2000. Tree height and diameter were measured in the winter of 2000. All traits were found to be highly genetically variable. Narrow-sense heritability of oleoresin flow was in the moderate range, similar to values obtained for the growth traits. Additive genetic correlations between oleoresin yield and growth traits were positive and moderately high, suggesting that directional selection in this population to increase either trait will positively affect the other.
Species 1: Coleoptera Scolytidae Dendroctonus frontalis (southern pine beetle)
Keywords: host resistance
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