Conifer Somatic Embryogenesis and Multi-Varietal Forestry
The global forestry sector, managing both natural forests and commercial plantations, is faced with many future challenges, including increased production of wood with desirable attributes, changing to new forest products, adaption to climate change, fore
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Abstract The global forestry sector, managing both natural forests and commercial plantations, is faced with many future challenges, including increased production of wood with desirable attributes, changing to new forest products, adaption to climate change, forest protection, and species conservation and restoration. To meet these challenges, a forest management system should be sufficiently flexible. Such flexibility is offered by the use of emerging tree biotechnologies, such as somatic embryogenesis (SE) and cryopreservation. SE is a tissue culture technique whereby genetically identical trees can be mass produced. Through the implementation of industrial multi-varietal forestry (MVF; the use of tested high-value tree varieties in plantations), it offers a new paradigm in tree breeding and deployment that is more flexible than the current seed orchard system. In addition to gaining economic benefits from MVF, SE enables research to elucidate genetic response to environmental factors, diseases, and insects and provides a tool for species conservation and restoration.
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Introduction
Tree improvement efforts around the world in the past 50 years have contributed greatly to the productivity and quality of plantation forestry. Increased productivity is delivered through a breeding scheme based on the seed orchard, and this will continue to be the primary means of achieving genetic improvement in the near future. Seed orchard-based tree breeding schemes typically produce about 10 % volume increase per generation (Tosh 2012). Although conventional tree breeding
Y.-S. Park (*) Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service – Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, PO Box 4000, Fredericton, NB E3B 5P7, Canada e-mail: [email protected] T. Fenning (ed.), Challenges and Opportunities for the World’s Forests in the 21st Century, Forestry Sciences 81, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7076-8_17, © Crown Employee Canada 2014
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provides a substantial increase in productivity, plantation forestry in the future will face new challenges: productivity will be pushed to even higher levels; breeding goals are changing as we search for new products; projected climate change scenarios cast uncertainty about tree adaptation as well as resistance to new pests; and tree breeders are expected to contribute to conservation and restoration of threatened tree species. Thus, tree breeders are required to develop “flexible” breeding and deployment systems to meet these challenges. Recent advances in tree biotechnology for several conifer species have enabled the development of more flexible tree breeding and deployment strategies than conventional seed orchard approaches can offer. In particular, somatic embryogenesis (SE) and cryopreservation offer the implementation of multi-varietal forestry (MVF), which is defined as the deployment of genetically tested tree varieties in plantations. It is also known as clonal forestry, but MVF is considered to be a more descriptive term when applied to industrial plantation forestry (Park 2
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