Abstract
In this project Department of Forest Mycology Plant Pathology, SLU, and the Swedish forest research institute (Skogforsk), together with several forest companies will for the first time develop and implement molecular markers in Swedish forest tree production. These markers are for resistance against root rot in Norway spruce. The consortium has a long history of collaboration and is now ready to implement the findings in practical forestry. Keeping trees healthy is an environmentally friendly way to sustainably promote primary production in favour of a range of ecosystem services including raw material for saw timber, fibres for pulp and various biorefineries, as well as serving as carbon sinks and providing safe forests for recreation. The overall goals of this project are 1) to deliver a cost efficient and reliable method to discriminate between alleles of the first validated resistance related marker in the LAR gene and to show how this can be implemented in practice, 2) to provide an extended set of new validated markers for resistance that can be implemented in forestry, 3) to deliver more markers for resistance and to be used in genomic selection approaches. The implementation includes marker assisted evaluation in forest tree breeding and selection against the most susceptible genotypes in seed orchards and in propagation methods involving both cuttings and somatic embryogenesis.
Sweden