Read the press release about the sequencing of the poplar genome, Click here
“We use paper and high-quality paper much more than we did 25 years ago,” says Dr. Jörg Bohlmann, a faculty member in the Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. “Our need for high quality solid wood for building materials is also greater. Pressure by human demand on natural forests is increasing, at the same time as outbreaks of pests and global climate change create uncertainties for natural and planted forests. But tree breeding for improved yield, quality and pest resistance is still in its infancy,” he concludes.
Dr. Bohlmann is one of four project leaders of “Forestry Genomics: Mechanisms of Wood Formation and Pest Resistance in Forest Trees using Spruce, Poplar and Arabidopsis”, an $11 million large-scale research project supported by Genome British Columbia, as well as by Genome Canada (50% – $5.5 million), a not-for-profit corporation leading a national strategy on genomics and proteomics with a $375 million investment in funding from the Government of Canada.
Tree/forestry genomics began in Canada only a few years ago. It is driven by a new breed of scientists and their desire to understand the fundamental genetics of trees, which are very different in their basic biology from other organisms. Trees remain stationary for their entire lives. For example, they do not have the same immune system as mammals and cannot actively seek partners. Trees deal with growth, nutrients and reproduction in unique ways. They are also capable of living for hundreds of years, often without being destroyed by insects or pathogens. We are only at the very beginning of understanding these mechanisms. But it takes comprehensive knowledge of the genetic blueprint of a tree, of what a tree is, in order to accelerate tree breeding. Moreover, forests are important for global ecology, for recreation, and for industrial applications. Ecological concerns and market acceptability require knowledge-based, non-GMO tree improvement.
The breeding of trees is something relatively new. According to Dr. Bohlmann, agricultural breeding has been practiced since the dawn of civilization. “The wheat that we harvest to make bread has several thousand years of breeding experience and genetic improvement through selection. It started with ‘primitive’ methods and has become more sophisticated. The discovery and rediscovery of Mendel’s genetic rules have been important for agricultural plant breeding since the early nineteen hundreds. Now at the beginning of the 21st -century, genomes of important agricultural crop plants have been deciphered and allow for the most sophisticated tools in plant breeding. But where has forestry been during this time? It is only in the early generations of traditional tree breeding (tree generation),” concludes Dr. Bohlmann.
Dr. Bohlmann and his colleagues Dr. Kermit Ritland, Dr. Carl Douglas and Dr. Brian Ellis are looking at spruce and poplar trees to make comparisons with Arabidopsis, a small weed, the genome of which has been completely sequenced and which is relatively closely related to poplar. Spruce is the most widely harvested conifer species in Canada, and also in Scandinavia, Western Europe and Russia. Spruce is an important resource and, therefore, a better understanding of how it functions will lead to a better understanding of how it can be used. Poplar is a model for research in hardwood tree biology. It is widely used throughout the world as a plantation tree, with increasing potential on marginal farmland. Related aspens are commercially and ecologically important in boreal forests. Poplar has a fast growth rate, a relatively short generation time, and has a relatively small genome.
The project team is examining gene and protein expression in spruce and poplar trees. The team focuses on the detailed analys