Forestry

Abstract

Genetic improvement plays a pivotal role in intensive management strategies for forest trees. Conventional breeding in forest trees is greatly constrained by long generation times. This is particularly true for temperate coniferous species, which rank among the most commercially important forest trees. In Aadditionally, many traits of interest exhibit poor correlation between the juvenile and mature phases of growth that are innate to trees. Consequently, these traits cannot be reliably evaluated at the morphological level until the tree has entered into mature growth, which may take several years. Given these constraints to conventional breeding, the use of biotechnology to reduce the time to create and select genetically improved trees could have a significant impact on forest tree improvement and the forest industry. In this chapter, we focus on how biotechnology has been and can be incorporated into forestry.