Tree's gene code cracked

Researchers have deciphered for the first time the genetic code of a tree, which could lead to new varieties better at producing wood, paper and fuel.

The work could vastly increase cultivation of the black cottonwood, a fast-growing poplar already used by the timber and paper industries. Details of the analysis of the tree's DNA, performed by dozens of researchers in eight countries, appear this week in the journal Science.

Today, the black cottonwood is still considered "wild," even though it's grown for lumber and pulp. Fifteen years from now, fully domesticated varieties of the tree, optimally tuned to grow faster and longer, better resist insects and disease and require less water and nutrients, could be growing like any other crop on tree farms spread across large regions of the United States, researchers said.

To create such poplars, researchers first must hunt among the tree's more than 45,500 genes to understand how they control its growth. Doing so can allow later tinkering, including selective breeding and genetic manipulation to bring out desirable traits. Already, they have found 93 genes associated with the production of cellulose and lignin, which form the walls of plant cells.

One goal is to create a poplar variety that can be used as a source of ethanol, which can be burned as fuel. Currently, ethanol is more expensive and difficult to produce from wood than it is from crops like corn.

Researchers also would like to create poplar varieties to soak up even more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lessen the impact of the gas on global warming.