Abstract Detail

Plant Resilience to Climate Challenges

Polle, Andrea [1], Wildhagen, Henning [2], Paul, Shanty [3], Smith, Hazel [4], Taylor, Gail [4], Triboulot, Marie-Beatrice [5], Nguyen, Ngoc Quynh [6], Janz, Dennis [6].

Wood production under drought stress.

The demand for sustainable production of renewable resources is increasing because of the growing world population. Woody biomass is important in this context because of its multi-purpose usages, e.g. as a construction material, to produce added-value wood products, as a feedstock for the chemical industry and as a resource for energy generation. Climate change with extended periods of summer drought is expected to limit productivity and increase the mortality of forest trees. Therefore, there is a need to understand wood formation of forest trees in their natural environment and to develop new germplasm of perennial biomass crops characterised by the ability to maintain productivity under water limited growth conditions. Towards these goals, the molecular and physiological performance of important fast and slow growing European tree species, i.e. black poplar (Populus nigra) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) were studied. We used three poplar progenies (“Italy”, “France”, “Spain”) that originated from environments differing in mean precipitation to investigate the transcriptomes and anatomical acclimation to drought in a controlled greenhouse experiment. Furthermore, we studied the seasonal regulation of the beech wood transcriptome in relation to anatomical changes under field conditions. The late season wood anatomy of beech resembled that of drought-stressed trees and suggests that the programme of wood seasonal acclimation can also be induced by drought. By inter-species comparison conserved transcriptional net-works of wood production under drought stress were identified.
Funding: This work was supported by the Lower Saxony (Klimafolgenforschung Niedersachsen, KLIFF) and by WATBIO (Development of improved perennial non-food biomass and bioproduct crops for water-stressed environments), which is a collaborative research project funded from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 311929

1 - Georg-August University of Göttingen, Tree Physiology and Forest Botany, Büsgen-Institut, Büsgenweg 2, Göttingen, LS, 37077, Germany
2 - Georg-August University of Göttingen
3 - Georg August University of Göttingen
4 - University of Southampton
5 - INRA Nancy
6 - Georg-August University of Göttingen

Keywords:
drought
Wood
Anatomy.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY18
Location: Hall A/The Shaw Conference Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2015
Time: 1:45 PM
Number: SY18002
Abstract ID:393
Candidate for Awards:None