Scientists decode the shared genetic blueprint behind all tree wood
Crop Improvement
Every fence post, sheet of paper, and shade tree on your street relies on a wood-building process that this research just mapped down to the individual genes switching on and off.
Trees make wood through a carefully orchestrated sequence of gene activity, and scientists wanted to know if pine trees and oak-type trees, which parted evolutionary ways hundreds of millions of years ago, still use the same genetic playbook. By comparing gene activity in the wood-forming tissue of many tree species, they found a mix of shared ancient instructions and newer, lineage-specific tweaks. This gives breeders and researchers a roadmap for understanding, and potentially improving, how efficiently different trees pack on wood.
Key Findings
Researchers built the first high-resolution atlas comparing wood-forming gene activity across multiple dicot (flowering) trees and conifers, lineages separated by over 300 million years
Orthology-aware co-expression network analysis identified both conserved genes and lineage-specific genes controlling xylem (wood) differentiation and secondary cell wall formation
Combining chromatin accessibility data with transcription factor motif analysis revealed candidate master regulators explaining differences in cell wall polymer acetylation between conifers and flowering trees
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists mapped the genetic instructions trees use to build wood, comparing flowering trees like poplar with conifers like pine and spruce, whose evolutionary paths split over 300 million years ago. The findings could help researchers breed trees that grow more wood faster, boosting timber production and carbon storage.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Comparative regulomics of wood formation across dicot and conifer trees
Understanding the regulatory program underlying wood formation is key to improving biomass production and carbon sequestration in trees. However, how wood formation evolved and how these programs h...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Populus is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood.