Forest Genomics for Mitigating Climate Change and Breeding Resilient Trees

Global climate change and the demand for an alternative, renewable and ecologically friendly source of energy significantly increases the role of pine forests in the Southeastern United States and population and ecological genomic studies of their adaptive, ecological and economic potential. The accelerating global climate change can exceed the adaptive potential of pine forests and lead to their contraction on large areas. However, some forest tree populations growing now in the regions that have ecological conditions similar to the future changes are likely to possess an adaptive potential necessary for spreading adaptation into other regions with similar ecological conditions expected in the future. Unfortunately, phenotypic plasticity and historically established gene flow between remote populations can be insufficient for fast natural propagation of genetic adaptations. In this connection the role of conservation management and especially that of assisted migration (also called assisted colonization, managed relocation or translocation done by physically moving the plant material (pollen, seeds and seedlings) to other regions where this material is better adapted to the future environments) increases. Modern methods and tools of population, landscape and ecological genomics allow to study the genetic basis of adaptation in forest tree species and also detect the main genes responsible for important adaptive and economic traits that can be used in assisted gene migration and tree breeding for biomass growth, water use efficiency, cellulose content and other traits important for adaptation and for bioenergy and biofuel production. The recent data on Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) populations studied for thousands different genes are presented to illustrate population and ecological genomic studies in conifers.