Characteristics of wood as adaptation to changes of nitrogen conditions

Duration of the project: 2015 - 2018

Contact: Aileen Gluschak, Email:aglusch(at)gwdg.de

Wood is a valuable natural resource and has a substantial part in our daily life. It is mostly used as sustainable energy supplier as well as for production of magazines, books, packages, pulp, furniture and planks actually. In consequence of the constant growth of human population, high consumption of wood occurs, which leads to the fact, that more wood with specific characteristics is necessary in the future.
It was already found out that wood characteristics in poplar are influenced by nitrogen. This crucial plant nutrient is taken up by plants mainly from the soil in form of nitrate and ammonium. High nitrogen supply triggers fast secondary growth and high biomass production. But anatomically, the secondary cell walls of developing secondary xylem tissue are much thinner, whereby the vessels are more voluminous under high than under low nitrogen levels in poplar. This development of fast growing low density wood under increasing nitrate and ammonium conditions in the soil should be avoided in the future. Therefore, in this project, we are looking for a transcription factor gene linked to nitrogen physiology and wood formation, which could affect the wood density in a positive manner by overexpression and high nitrogen conditions. Thereby, a targeted breeding of nitrogen-fertilized, fast growing poplars with thick secondary cell walls and increased secondary xylem production should be possible.
For this target, histological and transcriptomic studies are necessary to analyze wood formation under different nitrogen forms and to identify a candidate gene, which could be transformed in P. × canescens.

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Greenhouse experiment with Populus trichocarpa genotypes.

Publications and Dissemination

Presentations
Gluschak A (2016) Characteristics of wood as adaption to changes of nitrogen conditions. Seminar Material Science Wood, Göttingen, Germany (17 Feb 2016)

Funding acknowledgement

A PhD scholarship awarded by Lichtenberg Kolleg "Material Science Wood" with financial support of the Lower Saxony Ministry for science and culture.