Novel viral insecticides for forest protection in the age of climate change

随着气候变化，预计森林生态系统的扰动将增加，包括范围扩大和害虫的生存。不仅本地昆虫的范围会扩大，而且一些昆虫预计会向北扩展到加拿大。如果不加以控制，这将不可避免地导致更多的落叶破坏，从而影响其中物种的生物多样性，并严重影响每年为我们的贸易平衡贡献约300亿美元的林业。加拿大可以选择什么都不做。或者它可以选择积极主动，制定战略，如何最好地保护我们宝贵的加拿大森林资源和碳汇，为这一不可避免的情况做好准备。我们的建议解决了对替代生物害虫控制剂的需求，通过利用基于病毒的杀虫剂的许多优点（特异性，易于生产，原生生态系统）来针对特定的森林害虫，但经过修改使其更有效。特别是，我们正在开发一种平台技术，病毒重编程，使任何杆状病毒更有效。两种病毒酶，几丁质酶和组织蛋白酶，通常在病毒感染期间产生，用于破坏病虫的结构完整性，使其完全液化。我们重新编程的原生病毒将被设计成在感染后更早的时间产生更多的这两种酶。我们预期幼虫会比平常更早被杀死，从而减少取食造成的损害。为了做出这些改变，我们将使用病毒自身的基因控制元素来影响这种重编程。虽然最初是针对云杉budworm的杆状病毒，但该平台技术可以很容易地扩展到其他森林（和农业）害虫物种。我们也认识到新的害虫将扩展到加拿大的森林中，本地害虫的范围将增加，我们还将开发一组昆虫细胞系来研究

With climate change increased perturbations of the forest ecosystem are expected, including range expansion and survival of insect pests. Not only would there be an expanded range of native insects but also some insects are expected to expand further northward into Canada. If left unchecked this will inevitably lead to increased defoliation damage thereby impacting the biodiversity of the species within them and significantly affecting the forestry industry which contributes about $30 billion annually to our balance of trade. Canada could choose to do nothing. Or it could choose to be proactive and devise strategies on how best to preserve our valuable Canadian forest resource and carbon sink in preparation for this inevitability. Our proposal addresses the need for alternative, biological, insect pest control agents, targeted to specific forest pests by harnessing the many advantages of viral based insecticides (specificity, ease of production, native to the ecosystem), but modified to make them more effective. In particular we are developing a platform technology, virus reprogramming, to make any baculovirus more effective. Two virus enzymes, chitinase and cathepsin, normally produced during virus infection, serve to destroy the structural integrity of the diseased insect causing it to literally liquefy. Our reprogrammed native viruses will be designed to produce greater amounts of these two enzymes and at earlier times after infection. We expect the larvae to be killed earlier than normal, thereby reducing feeding damage. To make these changes we would use the virus's own genetic control elements to effect this reprogramming. While initially targeting a baculovirus against the spruce budworm this platform technology could easily be expanded to other forest (and agricultural) insect pest species. Recognizing also that new pests will expand into the Canadian forest and range of native ones will increase, we will also develop a panel of insect cell lines to a