Climatic adaptation of boreal forest trees

Lead institute: Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute

Project leader: Dr. Tor Myking

Background

Climatic adaptation is an important component of the evolutionary process of boreal forest trees. Proper timing of cold acclimation in the autumn, and deacclimation to higher temperatures in the spring are of paramount importance for tree survival and growth in these areas. The light climate and temperature are important factors in regulating these adaptive processes. However, the physiological and genetic mechanisms underlying climatic adaptation are largely unknown. Recent research in Norway spruce has demonstrated that temperature and photoperiod may regulate the progeny performance according to the prevailing conditions during zygotic embryogenesis, an epigenetic phenomenon

Objectives

The main objective is to better understand the process of climatic adaptation of boreal forest trees, with Norway spruce as model species. W e will study how the physiological, genetic and epigenetic processes interact in forming the Norway spruce phenotype, study specific genes involved and get a better understanding of the variation patterns of adaptive traits within and between populations. W e want to increase the knowledge of how genetic and epigenetic processes interact and influence the variation patterns in adaptive traits in Norway spruce populations, and to characterize specific genes involved in these processes.

General approach

Molecular techniques will in particular be applied in this research, but also population and quantitative genetic methods will be used. Both early tests in growth chambers and nurseries and long-term field tests are being used to measure adaptive performance.