Objective
With tne increasea demand for fibers in the future and the simultaneous demand for an environmentally friendly forestry, development of forest tree cultivars that do not draw on limited resources becomes urgent. Equally important might be to identify genotypes that benefit from high inputs of nutrients likely to be used in future intensive fiber farming. Nutrient efficiency has hardly at all been considered in tree breeding programmes. There is enough evidence that it might be worthwile to carry out systematic research to quantify the genetic variation in components of nutrient efficiency. Detailed information on these components may allow breeders to create genotypes with combinations of growth components that never have been tested in nature and that may outperform all genotypes that have existed. Owing to the long generation turn-over in most forest trees it is urgent to develop reliable early tests. Use of nutrient efficiency components might be one way to accomplish this.
$LForest tree species of major economical interest and representing major areas in Europe (Eucalyptus globulus, Picea abies, Picea sitchensis, Pinus pinaster, Pinus sylvestris) will be studied in NUTRIGEN. In all these species advanced breeding programmes exist, which also means that many field trials exist. NUTRIGEN is based on a close collaboration between experts in genetics, ecophysiology, mycorrhiza research, and tree breeding.
Thus, genetic variation in three components of nutrient efficiency as well as their predictive power for future performance will be studied jointly.
The components and our definitions of them are:
Nutrient acquisition capacity = the amount of nutrient taken up by a genetic entry under non-optimal conditions in relation to uptake under conditions of free access to nutrients
Nutrient utilization = the amount of dry matter produced per amount of nutrients in needles
Nutrient productivity = the amount of dry metter produced per amount of nutrients in needles and per time unit
Nutrient utilization and nutrient productivity can only be accurately estimated when there is no luxury consumption of nutrients. The objectives of NUTRIGEN are:
1. to identify ectomycorrhiza fungi in field trials including the same families as used under point 2,
2. to obtain estimates of genetic within-population variation in N and P acquisition capacity, utilization, and productivity in presence and absence of mycorrhiza,
3. to connect variation in acquisition capacity with data on the kinetics of uptake of inorganic and organic N and P by naked roots and roots with ectomycorrhiza,
4. to develop early tests with the aid of nutrient efficiency components.
The studies will benefit from existing old field trials on a broad span of site fertilities. This will enable us to carry out retrospective early tests in growth chambers by using young sibling or cuttings to those growing in field trials. Retrospective early tests are the fastest way to develop reliable early tests. The participation of tree breeders in this project is of great importance for an efficient and rapid implementation of the results of this project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering fibers
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- social sciences sociology demography fertility
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
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Coordinator
75007 UPPSALA
Sweden
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