Researchers are working on DNA fingerprints so
they can accurately identify lookalike species and subspecies of invasive
Australian pines. Photo courtesy of Amy Ferriter, South Florida Water
Management District, Bugwood.org |
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Scientists Sort Out Who's Who Among
Australian Pine Species
By
Marcia Wood October 24, 2008
Invasive Australian pines that crowd out native plants in Florida
present a particular conundrum. In the Sunshine State, it can be very difficult
to tell the look-alike Casuarina species and subspecies from one
another.
Correct identification is important to the
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists who want to import Casuarina-quelling insects from the
invasive tree's Australian homeland to stop the plants' uncontrolled advance in
Florida. But until they know whos who among the confusing Casuarina
trees, researchers wont be able to precisely match the helpful
insects with the exact Casuarina with which they evolved in Australia.
Perfect matches may be critical to the insects success in the United
States.
To solve the identity puzzle, ARS botanist and research leader
John
Gaskin is analyzing DNA taken from Casuarina trees growing in
Australia, where their identification is certain. Hes comparing that to
DNA from the Casuarina trees currently running amok in south Florida.
Technicians
Kim
Mann and
Jeannie
Lassey, who work with Gaskin in the
ARS
Pest Management Research Unit in Sidney, Mont., extract DNA from leaves
that Gaskin collected in 2006 from Casuarina trees growing along
Australias eastern coast.
Theyre also working with Casuarina specimens gathered
elsewhere in Australia by four co-investigators: Matthew Purcell and Bradley
Brown of the ARS
Australian Biological Control Laboratory in Indooroopilly, Australia; Gary
Taylor of the University of Adelaide
in Australia, and
Greg
Wheeler of the
ARS
Invasive Plant Research Laboratory in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The study is the first to use DNA to definitively identify
Casuarina trees in Florida. Gaskin expects to have final results
sometime this year.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.