A genome among the gum trees

An ambitious international effort has been launched to decode the genome of the Eucalyptus, one of the world's most valuable fibre and paper-producing trees.

The international scientific collaboration to sequence the 600-million-nucleotide genome will be carried out by two dozen institutions worldwide and will be organised by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE-JGI) community sequencing program (CSP). The information will be made freely available over the internet.

The project will be coordinated and the information disseminated by the Eucalyptus Genome Network, EUCAGEN, which was established in 2004 to promote the generation of public resources for Eucalyptus genomic research. More than 130 scientists from 18 countries are currently involved in EUCAGEN.

The scientific work will be led by Alexander Myburg of South Africa's University of Pretoria, and co-leaders Dario Grattapaglia of Brazil's Catholic University of Brasilia and Gerald Tuskan of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US.

Australian tree biologists including Dr Gerd Bossinger of the University of Melbourne, Dr Simon Southerton (Ensis/CSIRO Genetics), Dr Margaret Byrne of the WA Department of Environment and Conservation and the University of Tasmania's Professor Brad Potts, Associate Professor Rene Vaillancourt and Dr Dorothy Steane assisted in the development of the proposal to DOE-JGI.

EUCAGEN was established following a meeting of international scientists in Hobart hosted by the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Production Forestry. The network and sequencing effort are actively supported by all leading forest research organisations in Australia.

Potts said the availability of a public domain genome sequence for a eucalypt would mark the beginning of a new era in our understanding of Australia's iconic eucalypts. He said virtually all eucalypts are endemic to Australia and this initiative would have long-term benefits for the conservation and management of Australia's internationally important forest genetic resources.

Bossinger said the initiative would be a major stimulus for research in Australia. He said it would be of enormous value to Australian scientists studying the adaptive response of eucalypts to stresses such as salt, frost and drought tolerance, and help predict the response of Australian forests to climate change.

The project will be supported by significant contributions of genomic data and scientific leadership from ArborGen, a US-based forestry biotechnology company. Arborgen and its New Zealand-based shareholder, Rubicon, will provide access to their private collection of more than 240,000 Eucalyptus gene sequences.

ArborGen also will work to enable transformation of the model E. grandis clone that will be the source of the genomic sequence. Genolyptus, a Brazilian Eucalyptus research network directed by Grattapaglia, will donate more than 120,000 gene sequences and genetic mapping resources required to assemble and annotate the final genome sequence.

"Sequencing the Eucalyptus genome will help us overcome many of the major obstacles toward achieving a sustainable energy future," Myburg said. "Embedded in this information is the molecular circuit map for superior growth and adaptation in woody plants that can be optimised for biomass production.

"Its unique evolutionary history, keystone ecological status, and adaptation to marginal environments make Eucalyptus the focus of choice for expanding our knowledge of the evolution and adaptive biology of all perennial plants."

The genus Eucalyptus, comprised of over 700 different species, include some of the fastest growing woody plants in the world and, at approximately 18 million hectares in 90 countries, it is one of the most widely planted genus of plantation forest trees in the world.

These trees evolved in the Southern Hemisphere quite separately from Northern Hemisphere tree species. Only the second tree to be sequenced, Eucalyptus offers extraordinary opportunities for comparative genomic analysis with Populus, the first tree sequenced and published in the journal Science by DOE JGI and collaborators in 2006. www.crcforestry.com.au

Source: www.crcforestry.com.au