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Naturally occuring nucleotide diversity in candidate genes for forest tree adaptation: magnitude, distribution and association with quantative trait variation
Project
Project code: 0313156
Contract period: 01.09.2004
- 31.08.2007
Budget: 223,875 Euro
Purpose of research: Basic research
Although biologists are beginning to understand the genetic architecture of adaptive traits, very little is known about the actual loci responsible for their quantitative variation. Expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing and differential display analysis are discovering remarkable variation in genes sequence and expression, thus identifying many “candidate” genes for many traits of economical and ecological interest. The problem now lies in the screening of the most relevant candidates, and in discovering which molecular variations really matter, i.e. affect phenotypic variations. This innovative population genomics project will contribute to fill this gap by bringing together ecologists, molecular biologists, and population geneticists in a two-phase approach, consisting in the identification of functionally important genes and in the validation of the mutations (SNPs) of adaptive values within those genes, from their associations with the phenotypic variation of adaptive traits. This project focus on both structural and regulatory “candidate” genes underlying forest trees adaptation, and potentially involved in bud phenology, wood formation and drought stress response. In practice, the results will be germane to conservation programs, where information on the genetic control of the physiological functions of trees will aid to preserve critically important genotypes. Another important area of application for functional genomics in particular is adaptation of trees to environmental changes of all sorts, and physiological responses to abiotic stresses. Given the large number of genes under study (about a hundred) and their nature (structural vs. regulatory), it is expected that the benefit of the project will extent over the studied species and traits, both in respect to the type of genes or mutations of adaptive value, or to the methodology and molecular criteria necessary to assess adaptive diversity in plant species.
Section overview
Subjects
- Plant Breeding
Framework programme
BMBF - Frameworkprogramm Biotechnology - Using and Shaping its Opportunities
