Objective
Because of its fast growth and easy vegetative propagation, poplar is a perfect candidate, in temperate climates, for timber and biomass production. It also offers a solution for the valorisation of some lands abandoned by agriculture. Sylvicultural practices (including short rotation coppices) and breeding strategies have evolved recently, but consequently, host parasite relationships have changed: some diseases were magnified like bacterial bark necrosis and Hyoxylon mammatum canker, clones have lost their resistance with the emergence of new rust races. The main aim of the project is to forecast and evaluate such risk, to incite and help poplar breeders to select for stable tolerance to diseases and to propose to foresters a better choice and a clever management of poplar clones.
The project was divided in 2 main tasks. The first part concentrated on forecasting new phytosanitary risks due to the variability in pathogenity of bacteria and fungi, and to evolution of the bacteria and fungi populations. The pathogenicity and biochemical features were investigated from bacterial canker, bark necrosis, leaf spots and foliar rust. In bacterial canker there was variability in aggressiveness and it was also proved that interactions exist between strains and poplar clones (the strain which is the more pathogenic on one clone may be less aggressive on another clone). Concerning leaf spots the clonal effect was also found highly significant. in this part of the project a collection of more than 30 strains of bark necrosis was established by the partners. In the second part of the project the possibility to control the pathogens by identifying hosts with more stable resistance than in the past was studied. The behaviour of different poplar clones against pathogenic bacteria and fungi was evaluated and methods to evaluate the host's resistance were improved.
Pathogen variability (rust and bacterial canker) is explored, searching for host pathotype interactions and biochemical variability within European populations of the parasites. Geographical distribution, host range and evolution of the frequency of the most virulent pathotypes are studied in order to forecast the risks. Growth restriction and weakening (reduction in storage of the bark proteins) are evaluated on susceptible clones to identify the impact of the rusts.
Clones are studied for their reaction to rusts, bacterial canker, bacterial bark necrosis and H mammatum to identify clones with a sufficient tolerance to all pathotypes already discovered. When necessary, tests are developed to allow such clone assessment or to reduce the duration of the tests. In some cases, ecological and sylvicultural factors that may modify resistance are taken into account. At the end of the project, new bases for breeding poplar will be available such as genetic basis of resistance, its heritability and somaclonal variations.
Seven laboratories from Belgium, France and Italy cooperate in this project which implies various complementary methodologies such as microbiology, biochemistry, etiology, testing clones, controlled crosses and in vitro culture.
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.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic zones
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- agricultural sciences agricultural biotechnology agricultural genetics plant cloning vegetative propagation
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
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Coordinator
54280 Seichamps
France
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