Buhl Christine, Meilan Richard, Lindroth Richard L
Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706.
2600 State St., Salem, OR 97310.
J Insect Sci. 2017 May 1;17(3). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/iex052.
Lignin impedes access to cellulose during biofuel production and pulping but trees can be genetically modified to improve processing efficiency. Modification of lignin may have nontarget effects on mechanical and chemical resistance and subsequent arthropod community responses with respect to pest susceptibility and arthropod biodiversity. We quantified foliar mechanical and chemical resistance traits in lignin-modified and wild-type (WT) poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula) grown in a plantation and censused arthropods present on these trees to determine total abundance, as well as species richness, diversity and community composition. Our results indicate that mechanical resistance was not affected by lignin modification and only one genetic construct resulted in a (modest) change in chemical resistance. Arthropod abundance and community composition were consistent across modified and WT trees, but transgenics produced using one construct exhibited higher species richness and diversity relative to the WT. Our findings indicate that modification of lignin in poplar does not negatively affect herbivore resistance traits or arthropod community response, and may even result in a source of increased genetic diversity in trees and arthropod communities.
在生物燃料生产和制浆过程中，木质素会阻碍对纤维素的利用，但可以对树木进行基因改造以提高加工效率。木质素的改造可能会对机械抗性和化学抗性以及随后节肢动物群落对害虫易感性和节肢动物生物多样性的反应产生非目标影响。我们对种植园中生长的木质素改造型和野生型（WT）杨树（银白杨×欧洲山杨）的叶片机械抗性和化学抗性特征进行了量化，并对这些树上的节肢动物进行了普查，以确定总丰度以及物种丰富度、多样性和群落组成。我们的结果表明，机械抗性不受木质素改造的影响，只有一种基因构建体导致了化学抗性的（适度）变化。节肢动物的丰度和群落组成在改造树和野生型树之间是一致的，但使用一种构建体制备的转基因杨树相对于野生型表现出更高的物种丰富度和多样性。我们的研究结果表明，杨树中木质素的改造不会对食草动物抗性特征或节肢动物群落反应产生负面影响，甚至可能导致树木和节肢动物群落中遗传多样性增加。
