Molecular regulation of tree growth and development

森林是加拿大最重要的自然资源，占世界森林的10%，出口价值430亿美元，为近40万加拿大人提供就业机会。传统上，森林为建筑材料、纸浆和纸张提供木材和纤维产品，但随着人们对可再生能源的兴趣日益浓厚，树木有望为我们提供未来的燃料，如生物乙醇和生物柴油。随着未来对森林的需求不断增长，清楚地了解树木的生长和发育将变得越来越重要。最近，第一个树的DNA序列完成了，这带来了在分子水平上理解树的生长和发育的机会。我的研究项目将利用杨树的DNA序列，结合我自己实验室开发的独特的杨树资源，确定负责树木生长发育各个方面的基因。我们已经通过激活标记的过程创建了大量的树木，该过程加速了对重要树木特征负责的基因的识别。利用这些树木，我们将鉴定出与生长率、木材形成、叶片发育和抗病性等性状有关的新基因。我们还将把这些知识转移到对加拿大的纸浆、造纸和生物能源工业很重要的白杨树上。在该研究项目的过程中，将培养6名研究生，3名博士和3名硕士，每年培养4名本科生。

Forests are Canada's most important natural resource, representing 10% of the worlds forests, wotrh $43 billion in exports and providing jobs for almost 400,000 Canadians. Traditionally forests have provided wood and fiber products for building materials and pulp and paper, but with the growing interest in renewable energy sources, trees hold the promise of providing our future fuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel. With this growing demand on our forests in the future, it will become increasingly important to have a clear understanding of how trees grow and develop. Recently the first tree DNA sequence was completed, and with this comes the opportunity to understand tree growth and development at the molecular level. My research program will utilize the poplar DNA sequence, together with unique poplar tree resources developed in my own labortory to identify the genes responsible for various aspects of tree growth and development. We have created a large collection of trees by a process known as activation tagging that accelerates the identification of genes responsible for important tree traits. Using this collection of trees we will identify new genes responsible for traits such as growth rate, wood formation, leaf development and disease resistance. We will also transfer this knowledge to poplar trees of importance to Canada for the pulp and paper and bioenergy industries. During the course of this research program 6 graduate students will be trained, three PhD and 3 MSc, and each year 4 undergraduate students will be trained.