Research Goal:

One of the most significant threats to our forests is climate-related widespread outbreaks and range shifts of destructive bark beetles. They are decimating our forests, causing climate change, biodiversity loss, and community displacements. A healthy tree can usually fight back invading beetles by deploying chemical defenses and flooding beetles out with sticky resin. However, heat and drought hinder tree's ability to fight back (ie, less water means less resin). Under such circumstances, it is crucial to find an effective strategy to control bark beetle outbreaks.

Under the umbrella of the EXTEMIT-K Project here at  Forest Molecular Entomology Lab   (FMEL),  FFWS, we are trying to disentangle the bark beetle adaptation against the tree defenses in the forest using state-of-the-art metagenomics, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches. We shall also implement the gene editing technology to validate our findings functionally. More knowledge on the functions and plasticity of the beetle microbiome, the expression of the gut genes at a transcriptomic and proteomic level may provide novel insights for the control of this notorious forest destructors.

Link: https://extemit.fld.czu.cz/en/r-12331-people/r-12341-research-team