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Genetics and Genomics

Honors Theses

Southern pine beetles

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Invasion Of The Northeastern United States By The Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Frontalis, And The Impacts On Signatures Of Isolation By Distance Assessed Using Mitochondrial Dna, Lora Grace Holman May 2022

Invasion Of The Northeastern United States By The Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Frontalis, And The Impacts On Signatures Of Isolation By Distance Assessed Using Mitochondrial Dna, Lora Grace Holman

Honors Theses

The southern pine beetle (SPB) is a small, black beetle that parasitizes pine trees across the United States and Central America. Recently it has been recognized that the range of SPB is not limited to the southern United States, but rather extends northward across the eastern United States, which raises concerns for pine trees that have never encountered the pest before. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences from a section of the cytochrome oxidase I gene and four different measures of genetic distance compared to geographic distance, we tested for evidence of isolation by distance (IBD) among sampled SPB to see whether …


Population Genetics Of A Recent Range Expansion By The Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Frontalis, Into The Northeastern United States, Megan Stubbs May 2020

Population Genetics Of A Recent Range Expansion By The Southern Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus Frontalis, Into The Northeastern United States, Megan Stubbs

Honors Theses

Population genetics as a field of study aims to determine the genetic variation among individuals in a population, and differences among populations. Certain population genetic analyses can provide such information and be used to better understand the biological aspects to a species’ expansion beyond its native range. The southern pine beetle (SPB), Dendroctonus frontalis, has become an invasive pest to pine forests in northeastern United States with its recent range expansion. Nine microsatellite loci were first developed and then used in analyses. To determine what the genetic variation is among individuals in SPB populations across its entire range, including …