Over the past few decades, the spruce budworm has become one of the most devastating insect pests afflicting Canadian forests, a resource that contributes up to 37 billion dollars annually to the GNP and represents 10% of all jobs in Canada. With the adverse environmental affects of chemical pesticides, research efforts have been concentrated on biological agents such as viruses and bacteria as potentially environmentally safe pest control agents.
Research on the genomics of insects and their viruses has resulted in advancements in a number of areas where a bank of knowledge has been generated from which several programme initiatives have and are being planned. Detailed analyses of structural and functional genomics of two major families of viruses infecting the spruce budworm have been conducted in conjunction with genomic studies of various physiological processes in larvae particularly molting. These studies have not only generated a mass of knowledge but have initiated new avenues to modify host-specific insect viruses to generate effective and environmentally safe pest control agents. It relies on the principle that certain larval genes can be hyper expressed in a virus specific for the particular pest to adversely affect its metabolic processes. The project has spin-off benefits to other sectors in biology and in the control of agricultural insect pests.
The research programme is a concerted effort lead by scientist at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre of the Canadian Forest Service in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with collaborations from scientist at various Universities and research institutions in Canada.