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COMPUTER-ASSISTED MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF CHROMATIN DISTRIBUTION FOR DETERMINING QUALITY DIFFERENCES AMONG BARK BEETLE (SCOLYTIDAE) POPULATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

T.S. Sahota
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 W. Burnside Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8Z 1M5
F.G. Peet
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 W. Burnside Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8Z 1M5
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Abstract

Digital image processing was used to analyse chromatin distribution patterns of fat body nuclei of five populations of Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins taken from standing (UST) trees, stressed standing (SST) trees and downed (DT) trees. At the population level, chromatin distribution patterns of DT beetles were closely grouped, whereas those from the other beetles were not. Individual nuclei from the DT and UST populations could be correctly assigned to their groups with great accuracy (96% and 90%, respectively), but only 65% of the individual nuclei from the SST population could be accurately classified, the SST population was intermediate, and nuclei from many of its members resembled those from one or other of the two extreme groups. Digital image processing quickly revealed very minute differences in the distribution patterns that would be impossible to detect by conventional microscopy. This method of analysing chromatin distribution patterns, therefore, is a useful technique for identifying qualitative differences among populations long before more obvious external manifestations of the differences appear.

Résumé

La technique du traitement numérique d'images a été appliquée à l'analyse des configurations de la chromatine dans les noyaux du corps gras de cinq populations de Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins prélevés sur des arbres sur pied (AP), des arbres sur pied stressés (AS) et des arbres abattus (AA). Au niveau des populations, les distributions de la chromatine chez les scolytes AA étaient très étroitement groupées, ce qui n'était pas le cas avec les deux autres groupes. Les noyaux individuels obtenus des cellules des populations AA et AP pouvaient être le plus correctement assignés à leur groupe (succès de 96% et de 90%, respectivement). Mais seulement 65% des noyaux individuels du groupe AS pouvaient être attribués à leur groupe car bon nombre d'entre eux, dans cette catégorie intermédiaire, ressemblaient à des noyaux de l'un ou l'autre des deux groupes extrêmes. Le traitement numérique d'images a très rapidement mis en évidence des différences minimes dans la distribution de la chromatine qu'il aurait été impossible de détecter par la simple microscopie. Cette technique d'analyse se révèle donc très utile pour l'identification de différences qualitatives entre populations bien avant que des manifestations externes, plus évidentes, n'apparaissent.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1988

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