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U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science
Poplar Genome Based Research for Carbon Sequestration in Terrestrial Ecosystems |
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Principal investigator:
Andrew Groover, USDA Forest Service agroover@fs.fed.us Project period: August 2005 to present ER64115 |
Regulation of wood formation in Populus by Class III HD-ZIP transcription factors
Summary: The woody stems of forest trees are major terrestrial carbon sinks and sources of biofuels with net-zero carbon emission. Better understanding of the genetic regulation of wood formation is required to identify or breed the best trees for optimizing carbon sequestration and related applications. This project focuses on a specific class of genes, the Class III HD-ZIP genes, which encode transcription factor proteins. These transcription factors regulate the expression of a large suite of other genes, and control the relative amounts of wood versus bark that are produced in trees. The studies underway make use of the recently available genome sequence for the model forest trees, poplars, to make fast progress in understanding wood formation at the molecular genetic level. The results from these studies will describe basic developmental biology underlying wood formation, and provide information for selection, breeding, and monitoring forest trees for optimum carbon-related applications. |