Forest trees have important roles not only because their significant economic and ecological value in biodiversity conservation but also because of their mitigating effect on climate change and pollution abatement, and their value as an alternative and sustainable source of raw material and bioenergy. Wood and associated products as timber or plywood contribute significantly to the revenue generation of many countries in the world. However, new climatic conditions together with new pests and diseases, may pose a threat to the supply of forest products.
The main goal of the TreeGeneClimate project is the analysis of the genetic basis underlying wood quality traits in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H.Karst), the economically most important tree species in Europe, through a combination of genetic and genome-wide analysis of genetic and epigenetic markers associated with variation in morphological, physiological and biochemical traits, response to environment, resistance to disease and decay, heartwood extracts, and traits that might be necessary to limit degradation of wood and timber.
Genotyping and epigenotyping of 620 individuals (clones and unrelated trees) will be performed by means of exome-capture and targeted-bisulfite sequencing using target enrichment probes. The phenotypic, biochemical and genomic data will be then used for GWAS and EWAS to identify SNPs and methylation variants associated to these traits.
The results obtained in the TreeGeneClimate project will be useful for the development of Genomic Selection programs based on genome-wide markers and epi-markers, and regressive prediction models, reducing in turn the usually long generation times of traditional breeding programs in tree species.