Mountain pine beetle infestation is a major epidemic in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming. These beetles, which carry blue-stain fungi from the genus Ophiostoma, transmit infection by burrowing into trees to lay eggs. Mortality generally occurs within one year. Once attacked by a pine beetle, the host tree produces resinous compounds around the burrow in an effort to kill the invading insect. Acetone extracts from an infected lodgepole pine were compared with those from an uninfected lodgepole pine. Solid phase extraction was used to fractionate extracts into polar and non-polar components. The non-polar components were further separated into 5 chemical classes and analyzed by GC-MS. The blue stain is observed only in sapwood. This observation led to investigating the chemical composition of the extracts from sapwood and heartwood for newly formed, removed and concentration differences. The chemical classes investigated were resin acids, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, triglycerides, sterols lignans, phenols and low molecular weight carbohydrates. The extractives chemical classes showed differences in the concentration for the sapwood and heart wood. The resin acids decreased and the fatty acids were in trace amounts in the sapwood. The identifications of formed chemicals are still under investigation. The decreased concentrations in fatty acids are the normal response factor for trees in distress.

Mountain beetle pine infestation:  Gas chromatographic analyses of acetone extractives in Lodgepole (pinus contorta)

247th National Meeting (2014)

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