Applications of CRISPR Technologies in Forestry and Molecular Wood Biotechnology.

Forests worldwide are under increasing pressure from climate change and emerging diseases, threatening their vital ecological and economic roles. Traditional breeding approaches, while valuable, are inherently slow and limited by the long generation times and existing genetic variation of trees. CRISPR technologies offer a transformative solution, enabling precise and efficient genome editing to accelerate the development of climate-resilient and productive forests.

Uncovering epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of growth in Douglas-fir: identification of differential methylation regions in mega-sized introns.

Tree growth performance can be partly explained by genetics, while a large proportion of growth variation is thought to be controlled by environmental factors. However, to what extent DNA methylation, a stable epigenetic modification, contributes to phenotypic plasticity in the growth performance of long-lived trees remains unclear. In this study, a comparative analysis of targeted DNA genotyping, DNA methylation and mRNAseq profiling for needles of 44-year-old Douglas-fir trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.

From Genome Sequencing to CRISPR-Based Genome Editing for Climate-Resilient Forest Trees.

Due to the economic and ecological importance of forest trees, modern breeding and genetic manipulation of forest trees have become increasingly prevalent. The CRISPR-based technology provides a versatile, powerful, and widely accepted tool for analyzing gene function and precise genetic modification in virtually any species but remains largely unexplored in forest species. Rapidly accumulating genetic and genomic resources for forest trees enabled the identification of numerous genes and biological processes that are associated with important traits such as wood quality, drought, or pest resistance, facilitating the selection of suitable gene editing targets.

The map-based genome sequence of Spirodela polyrhiza aligned with its chromosomes, a reference for karyotype evolution.

Duckweeds are aquatic monocotyledonous plants of potential economic interest with fast vegetative propagation, comprising 37 species with variable genome sizes (0.158-1.88 Gbp).