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소나무재선충 매개충 ‘솔수염하늘소’ 생활사 비밀 밝혀
JNU team unravels life-cycle of pine wilt disease-pollinating insect “Japanese pine sawyer”

제주대 연구팀 세계 최초.. 분포가능지역 추정 결정적 단서 제공 JNU research unravels critical habitat for pine-disease mediating insect

Jeju National University (Song Seok-Eon, President) disclosed earlier today (September 29, 2020) that a team of Professor Kim Dong Soon of the JNU College of Life and Natural Resource Plant Resource Environment Program Entomology Laboratory unraveled the life cycle secret of pine wilt disease- pollinating insect “Japanese pine sawyer” (Monochamus alternatus) involved in a major wilting devastation to the Jeju pine forest.

According to the team, the pine wilt disease pollinator was first discovered to be mediated through the pollinating Insect in 1972. Subsequently, a University of Tokyo research team proposed the life cycle of the insect for the first time.

Surprisingly, the JNU research revealed that the lifecycle was temperature modulated in adapting to the habitat temperatures; for example, at a higher temperature zone the insect reproductively matures fully, exhibiting selective adaptability to the environment, whereas at a lower temperature zone (e.g., lower altitude mountainside) it did not grow fully to its reproductive form. The team suggests that this evolutionary adaptability accounts for the uneven distribution of pine wilt-diseased trees at different altitudes of pine forest.

The JNU research was conducted under the grant support from Jeju Autonomous Government Pine Wilt Disease Program.

Professor Kim said that his findings offered a decisive clue to the world distribution of the pine wilt disease pollinator insect.

Results of the JNU research appeared in a recent issue of the Nauture’s sister journal on-line .