Monochamol is a male-produced aggregation pheromone of the Monochamus species, which are vectors of the pine wood nematode (PWN). This nematode is a fatal devastating pest, infecting pinewood trees and is one of the serious forest pest in Korea. The nematicidal activity of synthetic monochamol and its homologues (ROEtOH: R = C7-C13) were determinated to potential alternatives to the currently used PWN control agents. In this study, for elucidation of the lethal mechanism induced by monochamol, we performed Transcriptome analysis by next-generation sequencing (RNA-seq) from LC50 treated PWN and are characterizing some significant genes which were differentially expressed in PWN.

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, commonly known as pine wood nematode (PWN) and pathogen of pine wilt disease, is transmitted to new host trees through Monochamus spp.. In this study, five points were set 1 km apart placing the interface of the damaged area in the middle to measure density of the beetles and confirm the presence of PWN in Chungcheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea. The vectors collected from five traps on each point were sorted on weekly basis until the 12th week. We confirmed the presence of PWN in each collected vector by PCR with species-specific ITS primers.