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Ecology and Epidemiology

Effects of Terpenoid Compounds on Growth of Symbiotic Fungi Associated with the Southern Pine Beetle. J. Robert Bridges, USDA Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, 2500 Shreveport Highway, Pineville, LA 71360; Phytopathology 77:83-85. Accepted for publication 15 May 1986. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1987.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-77-83.

The blue-stain fungus Ceratocystis minor and the two mycangial fungi of the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) were grown in saturated atmospheres of volatile compounds from loblolly pine. The monoterpenes Α-’ and ?-pinene significantly stimulated the linear growth of one of the mycangial fungi, a Sporothrix species. Growth of the other, a basidiomycete, was significantly inhibited by Α- and Β-pinene and by most of the other compounds tested. Linear growth of C. minor was not significantly affected by Α-pinene but was inhibited by Β-pinene. A phenylpropanoid, 4-allylanisole, was highly inhibitory to all three fungi. Results suggest that the production of this compound may be an important loblolly pine defense mechanism against attack by the southern pine beetle and fungi associated with it.