Poplar Genome Puzzle Team
Left to right, Chandrashekhar Joshi, Chung-Jui Tsai, and Victor Busov helped unravel the genetic code of the black cottonwood, work that could lead to better biofuels and help fight global warming.
“This is a real milestone for the entire forest research community”

Biotechnology Research Center

Director, Chung-Jui Tsai
School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences

Solving the Poplar Genome Puzzle





The research might solve some of the earth's most pressing ecological problems. "By understanding the tree genome, we could develop trees that lower greenhouse gases," said Joshi.



Poplar's rapid growth and its relatively compact genome size of 480 million nucleotide units are among the many features that led researchers to target poplar as a model for biofuel production.

"Under optimal conditions, poplars can add a dozen feet of growth each year and reach maturity in as few as four years," said Sam Foster of the US Forest Service.

Poplar is the most complex genome to be sequenced and assembled by a single public sequencing facility and only the third plant to date to have its genome completely sequenced and published. The first, back in 2000, was the tiny weed Arabidopsis thaliana, an important model for plant genetics. Rice was the second, three years ago.

The poplar project supports a broader DOE drive to accelerate research into biofuels. Scientists envision a future where vast poplar farms in regions such as the Upper Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and portions of the southeastern US could supply bio-refineries with the raw materials needed to manufacture fuels such as ethanol.

Now that the genes have been identified, the consortium of scientists is working on the next phase of the project: deciphering the role played by each gene.

"There are secrets to life embedded in this genome that we don't know anything about," Busov said. For instance, trees live longer and grow larger than any other living thing, and the mechanisms controlling that are encoded in their DNA.
