2.02.20 - Breeding and genetic resources of southern pines

UNIT NOTICEBOARD

2021-03-03

7th IUFRO International Workshop on the Genetics of Tree-Parasite Interactions in Forestry Understanding forest tree-antagonistic interactions in a changing world

Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain; NEW DATE: 12-17 September 2022!
Units involved: 7.03.11, 2.02.15, 2.02.20, 7.02.05, 7.02.09, IUFRO Task Force on Forests and Biological Invasions.

Managed and natural forests provide essential ecosystem services worldwide. Due to the free of movement ofpeople and goods across biogeographical zones,tree species are increasingly challenged by emergent invasive biotic threats.We can see large range expansions of pests and diseases, as well assudden shiftsto naïve hostspecies. Moreover, climate change is also increasingabiotic tree stresses, whichsynergistically interact with tree resistanceleading to negative effects on tree survival and forest resilience. Althoughforest tree species are known to harbour high levels ofgenetic variation, most remain fairly unstudied, particularly in traits related tohost tolerance and resistancetobiotic and abiotic stressors.To understand such variations, within the framework of the genetics of tree-antagonist interactions, is necessary to forecast the survival and prevalence of forest populations in a changing environment. This knowledge can also be exploited in breeding programs aiming to improve forest health. The scientific community ispushingfor an urgent multidisciplinary and coordinatedeffort to solvethese challenges,making use of current and newknowledge, strategies and technologies. Geneticists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, phytopathologists, entomologists, plant physiologists, breeders and managers are all involved in this challenge. This workshop will provide the idealforum for updating knowledge, evidences, solutions and failuresbetween scientific, academicand practicalapproaches. It is also an opportunity toenhancethe dialogueof long experienced expertise with the newgenerations of scientists, which will provide creative and newsolutions in the near future.

Details: https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/science/divisions/div2/20215/pontevedra20-2nd-announcement.pdf

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Coordinator:

Heidi Dungey, New Zealand

Deputies:

Claudio Balocchi, Chile

Eugenia Iturritxa, Spain

About Unit

This Working Party includes the genetic and breeding aspects of the southern (US) pines in their native environment and in exotic plantations established around the world.  It also encompasses the Central American and Mexican pines as these are becoming more important in the tropics and subtropics.

This Working Party held a joint meeting with the Australasian forest genetics group in Hobart, Australia in April 2007.  Our plans are now to look at the efficacy of having a following up meeting in several years, possibly in southern Latin America or having a satellite meeting in junction with IUFRO 2010 Congress.


State of Knowledge

There are several areas of importance.  Breeding programs for major southern pines are all in the advanced generations, development of breeding and deployment strategies is one of the major area to capture additive and non-additive genetic gains in advanced generations.  There is increased emphasis to make pine hybrid crosses between the US southern pines and the Mexican closed cone pines to improve growth, wood quality and disease resistance. Of great concern to plantation growers is developing resistance to the pitch canker fungus which currently have the potential to adversely affect P. radiata and P. patula. There also has been much emphasis to better understand the genetics of wood quality. Recent development of non-destructive tools to measure wood quality traits facilitated a great progress in understanding inheritance of a suit of wood traits and made it possible to screen young trees of large number for breeding program. We are finding that NIR models developed to predict chemical properties of tropical pines also are functional for the southern pines.  Also economic breeding objectives were developed for radiata pine structure timber production.