An international team of scientists have realised a breakthrough which paves the way for researchers to start controlling growth and density in trees bred for bioenergy production, such as hybrid aspen.
Bio4Energy researchers involved said the findings meant they now had a "handle" with which to manipulate the transport of the plant hormone auxin in wood producing cells found in the stem of trees. Their peer-reviewed article has been published in the well-respected scientific journal Nature Communications.
There appears to be agreement in the scientific community involved in research focused on plants which have a similar make up to wood that the hormone auxin is a regulator of plant growth. Yet, the international research team says in its new article, so far all attempts at regulating the kind of auxin transport in wood that could influence the wood's make up have failed.
“This plant hormone [auxin] regulates cell development and secondary walls in wood cells. We have found a transporter of this hormone… which is involved in the formation of the secondary cell wall. With this [new knowledge] we try to change wood properties”, said Fischer of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who coordinated B4E’s part of the work.
“Others have wanted to change the chemical properties of wood… since there are a lot of chemical hindrances to its break down, but here it is about [changing] growth characteristics”, he explained.
“The next step will be to regulate the function of the [WAT1] gene in wood", Fischer said;
“Our ultimate goal is full growth and dense wood. This is long-term work, but now we have a gene to work on.
“A model is there since a long time. It has been much discussed, but now we are able to actually test it”.
The scientific article corresponding to the research breakthrough described above is 'Arabidopsis WAT1 is a vacuolar auxin transport facilitator required for auxin homoeostasis'. It has been published as an open-access article in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The following researchers and organisations contributed to the 'Arabidopsis WAT1' breakthrough:
Centre National del la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
Deborah Goffner - also of the University of Toulouse
Umeå Plant Science Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Urs Fischer - Bio4Energy
Xu Jin - Bio4Energy
Judith Felten - Bio4Energy
Karin Ljung - Bio4Energy
Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Institut Claude Grigon, CNRS/UMR, France
Institut de Recherches en Horticulture et Semences, INRA/ACO/Université d'Angers, France
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