4 Facts About Using Genetics in Pursuit of a More Perfect Christmas Tree

What will your Christmas items be positioned beneath this yr? A Fraser fir? A Douglas fir? An synthetic tree?

While some people love the look and odor of a actual Christmas tree, others desire the low maintenance and longevity of a man-made tree.

But what if we might use genetics to enhance the Christmas tree? Would you commerce in the pretend tree for a fir that loses much less needles and requires much less maintenance?

Here are 4 information about utilizing genetics in pursuit of a extra good Christmas tree:

1) Very little has been identified concerning the genomes of Christmas timber. Megan Molteni of Wired reported final yr:

“…the conifer genome is not just enormous—20 billion base pairs compared to your 3 billion—but also pretty weird. At some point in their deep past, spruces, pines, firs, and their relatives acquired a complete second set of genes. Scientists think this genome-wide duplication likely helped shape these species into the tallest, hardiest plants in the world. But it’s also made sequencing them an incredibly daunting challenge. And unlike corn and soybean, there hasn’t been much money available to even try. So far scientists have managed to put together partial DNA blueprints for only a handful of conifers, not including the most popular Christmas tree species.”

2) Scientists and researchers are finding out genetic knowledge taken from Christmas timber around the globe to higher perceive the DNA of these timber and improve the potential for genetic enchancment. For instance, North Carolina State University’s Christmas Tree Genetics Program has been working since 1996 to advance the state’s Christmas tree business by way of the applying of genetic rules.

“We are doing DNA sequencing to understand the DNA of Christmas trees, and in the long term, this may lead in the future to genetic engineering.” – John Frampton, professor in the division of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University

3) Genetics analysis might result in the event of Fraser firs which might be proof against pests like Phytophthora root rot and the balsam woolly adelgid. A Christmas tree spends six to 10 years rising earlier than it’s lower to be offered, and such pests can kill a tree earlier than that point.

Phytophthora is a fungus-like organism that may infect a Fraser fir and trigger yellow-green needles, wilting, lifeless branches, and finally tree demise.

Balsam woolly adelgid is a small insect that feeds on Fraser firs and kills the timber after a number of years of infestation.

4) Genetics analysis can also be exploring what separates the perfect needle-holders from the worst. Using branches from totally different timber, Gary Chastenger, a plant pathologist at Washington State University, has been researching the genetic variations of timber and needle retention. Via Wired:

Today, Chastagner’s staff hangs the branches on racks or wire clotheslines strung throughout a temperature-controlled concrete cistern, the place they relaxation with out water for seven to 10 days. Then, a few well-trained technicians gently rub every department and fee the needle retention on a scale of one (1 p.c of needles fall off) to seven (91 to 100 p.c loss).

Chastagner is just in the extremes on either side of the spectrum. Over the years, he’s taken any cuttings that fee zero to 1, or six to seven and grafted little bits of them onto rootstocks his lab manages on 15 acres in Puyallup. This course of converts every outlying specimen into an remoted stand of genetically similar timber, preserving their distinctive DNA in what’s known as a clonal holding block.

Now, these timber are half of a huge effort to pinpoint the tiny genetic variations that decide why some timber end up higher than others.

Six years in the past, Chastagner and researchers at Washington State University, North Carolina State University and University of California, Davis collectively secured $1.3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to search out genetic markers for Phytophthora root rot resistance and needle retention.

Chastagner’s graduate pupil, Katie McKeever, is amassing isolates of Phytophthora in varied rising areas. By sequencing these samples and conducting pathogenicity trials, McKeever will contribute important data to the staff’s seek for mechanisms of resistance in timber. Once the researchers discover the related genetic markers, they’ll display screen grownup timber and choose probably the most promising as seed sources for viable Christmas tree plantations.

The staff will use related methods to resolve the matter of needle shedding. Chastagner’s multi-decade cataloging of Christmas timber with various levels of postharvest needle retention will give this half of the challenge a jump-start. By utilizing these and different timber, scientists will be capable of shortly determine needle-retentive gene sources so growers can produce fascinating Christmas timber.

Through genetics analysis we are able to enhance firs which might be used for Christmas timber and make sure the genetic conservation of firs. There is far more to find out about conifer genetics, however as Chastagner stated in the interview with Wired, “the potential for genetic improvement in these species is huge.”