THE TELECONFERENCE

When the team went to ArborGen, some important questions were asked about genetically engineering trees. One of our questions was: Could you create a pine tree that smells less like oleoresin, or pine pitch? Ms. Hinchee of ArborGen gave us the email address of Dr. Bohlmann, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
A few days later, we had a teleconference back in the lab with the professor. He answered our most important question: "Could you create a tree that smells less like oleoresin?" Dr. Bohlmann's answer was yes. You could create it, but it would be very difficult because a pine tree has 25 billion bases. Plus, a pine tree apperently has a lot of junk that its genome holds on to that it doesn't really need. He also gave us a lot of interesting facts and answers to our questions, for example, when we asked would marketing a pine tree that smells less be a smart thing to do, Dr. Bohlmann said that climate change leads to unpredictable pine beetle attacks. By the time a pine tree could be engineered to smell less and have time to grow, the attacks may have decreased. If populations normalize for several years, the problem may be forgotten. The pine tree may not be engineered anymore, and by the time the pine beetles have attacked significantly again, it will have been too late.

Dr. Bohlamnn helped us tremendously, and we thank him for his time.
team 122, the ICE WOLVES