Genetic Engineering and Genome Editing Approaches for Identification and Sustainable Management of Insect Pests Under Forest Dynamics

Forests are significant natural resources that assist to maintain ecological balance, biodiversity, and provide essential products and services to humanity. Insects and pests pose serious risks to the health and productivity of ecosystems of forests around the world. They can cause significant economic and environmental harm by harming trees and limiting their growth, productivity, and quality. To address insect pests, traditional management approaches such as chemical pesticides have been used. Nevertheless, these methods are frequently expensive, ineffectual, and may have harmful environmental consequences. In recent years, advances in biotechnology have provided new opportunities for developing sustainable and eco-friendly management strategies for insect pests of forest trees. This chapter presents a summary of current understanding about forest tree insect pests, their ecological importance, and their impact on forest ecosystems. The chapter further focuses on the application of advanced biotechnological approaches, including genetic engineering, molecular biology, insect-resistant trees, RNAi-based gene silencing, and bioinformatics, for the management of insect pests of forest trees.