 United
States Department of Agriculture -
Forest Service |
 Southern Research Station200 W.T. Weaver Boulevard Asheville, NC 28804 |
||||||
 Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). Photo credit: Brian Lockhart, USDA Forest Service |
|
Southern Research Station Shares USDA Award--$6 Million awarded to advance tree genomics and breeding
Asheville,NC -- The Southern Institute of Forest Genetics (SIFG) will receive funding from a $6 million grant announced in Washington on August 31st by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. The grant will support research to improve genomic-based breeding technologies for conifer trees through the Conifer Translational Genomics Network (CTGN), a collaborative effort in agriculture and forestry research to provide tree breeders with new tools to enhance and accelerate tree improvement.
David Neale (University of California-Davis) is the principal investigator for the grant, which includes 11 other university and Federal research collaborators. SIFG, a unit of the USDA Forest Service (FS) Southern Research Station based in Saucier, MS, will serve as a unit of the Genetic Stocks Center with responsibility for archiving important genotypes of loblolly pine. Approximately 1,000 genotypes will be grafted and maintained as living trees by SIFG for current and future use in the research and outreach efforts of the CTGN. SIFG researchers and the CTGN project team will focus on associating specific DNA sequences with attributes such as growth rate, tree form, wood quality, stress tolerance, and disease and insect resistance. The FS Pacific Northwest Research Station will develop a similar stock center for Douglas fir at Corvallis, OR.
ÂThe loblolly pine and Douglas fir genetic stock centers will be valuable resources, both now and into the future, for geneticists trying to locate DNA sequence variations that control biological, physical, and chemical attributes of conifer trees, says Dana Nelson, SIFG project leader and CTGN cooperating scientist.
The Southern Institute of Forest Genetics was established in 1954 on the Harrison Experimental Forest located 25 miles north of Gulfport, MS. Research at the SIFG focuses on developing procedures to improve the health, productivity and genetic diversity of southern forests through better understanding of the genetics, ecology and evolutionary relationships in forest ecosystems.
USDA news release: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2007news/conifercap.html
Return to the News Release Homepage
Return to the Southern Research Station Homepage