Genetically modified trees are on their way

[HuckleB]

Down in the forest, something stirs

http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3535741

IN SEPTEMBER 2004, a group of scientists from around the world announced that they had deciphered yet another genome. By and large, the world shrugged and ignored them. The organism in question was neither cuddly and furry, nor edible, nor dangerous, so no one cared. It was, in fact, the black cottonwood, a species of poplar tree, and its was the first arboreal genome to be unravelled. But perhaps the world should have paid attention, because unravelling a genome is a step towards tinkering with it. And that, in the end, could lead to genetically modified forests.

The black cottonwood was given the honour of being first tree because it and its relatives are fast-growing and therefore important in forestry. For some people, though, they do not grow fast enough. As America's Department of Energy, which sponsored and led the cottonwood genome project, puts it, the objective of the research was to provide insights that will lead to “faster growing trees, trees that produce more biomass for conversion to fuels, while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.” It might also lead to trees with “phytoremediation traits that can be used to clean up hazardous waste sites.”

It is also pretty sure to lead to a lot of environmental protest—hence, perhaps, the environmental emphasis of the energy department's mission statement. Given the argument about genetically modified field-crops that has taken place in some parts of the world, genetically modified forests are likely to provoke an incandescent response. Soya, maize, cotton and the like were already heavily modified for human use before biotechnologists got their hands on them. One result is that they do not do very well in the big, bad, competitive world outside the farmer's field. But trees, even the sorts favoured by foresters, are wild organisms. GM trees really might do well against their natural conspecifics.

...

Lofty mission statements aside, the principal commercial goals of arboreal genome research are faster growth and more useful wood. The advantage of the former is obvious: more timber more quickly. More useful wood, in this context, mainly means wood that is more useful to the paper industry, an enormous consumer of trees. In particular, this industry wants to reduce the amount of lignin in the wood it uses.

..."

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Personally, I wouldn't mind a GM elm that can survive the Dutch

Elm disease. Does anybody remember those beautiful giants that once populated the East?

Technology is only as good or bad as those who use it.

[Old and In the Way]

3. I'm growing a few American Elms..........

back bred with the disease resistant Chinese Elm (1/12). Started 3 years ago.....I have 4 that are about 2 feet tall and seem to have rooted well.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. OMG you evil person you!

I am so glad to hear that. When I was a kid my family moved overseas in 1960. Came back for the summer in '65, and all the trees were gone. It was heartbreaking.

I knew there were some resistant elms. Wish I could be around to see them make a comeback -- but don't suspect I'll be here in another 50 years.

Good luck, and good work.

[miss_kitty]

2. Isn't this in part why The Center for Urban Horticulture Was torched

(At the U of Washington, Seattle, May 2001) One of the profs or researchers there was doing something with GM poplars there and it was alleged they were out to destroy his records.

"Associate Professor Toby Bradshaw uses traditionally bred and genetically engineered poplars to learn about the basic biology of how they develop, something of interest to scientists trying to understand the basics of how all trees grow and, in the last two decades, to companies interested specifically in growing and harvesting poplar trees for making paper and other wood products..."

...At about the same time Monday morning that the Center for Urban Horticulture was being set on fire, buildings and vehicles at a Jefferson Farms poplar tree nursery in Oregon were also torched. Written on a wall at the Oregon site was a message “You cannot control what is wild” and the initials of the Earth Liberation Front, a group that has claimed responsibility for ecoterrorism attacks on commercial properties across the nation including a ski resort and lumber yard."

http://depts.washington.edu/~uweek/archives/2001.05.MAY_24/article3.html

I guess it did not work

[Helix]

4. Dont worry yet

I would not make a big deal about the DOE being behind this genome project, the DOE funds many genome projects (see http://www.doegenomes.org/) through the Joint Genome Institute; DOE is involved because they run the National Labs.

Interesting that it should say "unravelling a genome is a step towards tinkering with it." since you need not tinker with it to get "faster growing trees, trees that produce more biomass for conversion to fuels, while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.” Once you have the genome done and identify genes which are responsible for those traits than you can find natural variants by comparing genes across species; then its just a matter of selective breeding-- No genetic modification required.

By the way, many GM modified plants were created before the genomes for them was done (such as golden rice which had a beta carotene gene inserted into the rice genome).

[NNadir]

5. The piece of genetic engineering I most look forward to in forestry

is that which will insert blight resistance into the magnificient American Chestnut, a tree that has hovered on the edge of extinction since the introduction of the Asian blight. (The Asian Chestnut, unlike the American, evolved in the presence of this pathogen.)

On the subject of lignin, I note that this material represents an important carbon dioxide sequestering agent. Many modern concretes contain lignosulfonates to improve their mechanical properties. The fixed carbon in this material, such as is found in the Petronas Towers and many other structures, won't be going anywhere for a few thousand years, most likely.

[amandabeech]

7. There is a breeding program for the American chestnut similar

to that for the American Elm. Scientists are crossing those few disease resistant pure American Elms with disease-resistant Chinese Elms, then breeding back to obtain a hybrid that carries the resistant genes, but has American Chestnut characteristics. Google "American Chestnut Foundation."

There is also some work with a counter-blight virus of some sort that is being imported from Italy, but is occurring naturally in an isolated grove near Cadillac, Michigan.

[NNadir]

8. I've been following, and occasionally contributing, to ACF for years.

The hypovirulent VLP imported from Italy did not work well to prevent the spread of the disease because the Cryphonnectria fungus developed several variant strains once it was introduced to North America. The use of the VLP to save the European tree from the same fate as the American tree, owing to quick action on the part of the great French plant physiologist Jean Grente, succeeded only because Grente discovered this when the infection was still relatively new in Europe.

The American plant physiologist Gary Griffin, at the University of Virginia, believes that genes for resistence are found to some extent in native trees. He claims that this is the reason for the survival of the Erie and Michigan groves, and not hypovirulence. I am certainly not qualified to discuss the merits of his argument. He has founded the American Chestnut Co-operator's Foundation.

Interestingly, I have an American Chestnut in my front yard. It's not a very big tree, and it's had two serious blight infections, but it seems to be doing well now. (I've lived here almost ten years, and it was here when I got here, though it was just a twig then.) This year I got three burrs. I hope to plant them in the spring.