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Abstract
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| Forest trees comprise 82% of the continental biomass and the forest ecosystems hold more than 50% of the terrestrial biodiversity. Forests have a prominent role in the global economy and ecology, and represent a cultural and patrimonial heritage. It is expected that world population will reach 9 billion persons by 2050 and the demand for food, wood and wood products and energy will increase dramatically, with the consequent competition for land and water use. Highly productive and low input forest tree plantations are excellent alternatives to circumvent the demand for wood mostly meet by the exploitation of natural forests. Despite the global importance of wood forests, wood tree domestication is still in its infancy, being time-consuming and expensive, in particular for complex multigenic traits, such as wood quality. Genetic engineering (GE) has the potential to avoid the difficulties associated with classical breeding and to facilitate the introduction of economically important genes into elite genotypes (Trontin et al, 2007). GE is also considered a useful tool to demonstrate direct links between candidate genes functions and phenotype (Busov et al, 2005). These characteristic are particularly important when dealing with the long life cycle woody trees. Since the development of the Agrobacterium-mediated method for poplar transformation, twenty five years ago (Parsons et al. 1986, Filleti et al, 1987), several efficient transformation methods have been developed for commercial important forest tree genus such as Pinus and Eucalyptus (Trontin et al, 2007; Girijashankar, 2011). Nowadays, new genetic engineering techniques are being tested and applied for tree improvement rising new challenges for on their application for commercial use, environmental risk assessment, legislation and regulation, and monitorization. This Training School in the frame of the Cost Action FP0905 aimed to provide to the students updated theorical knowledge andpractical tools in in vitro tree differentiation and transformation, new genetic engineering techniques and possible practical applications, as well as their impact on environmental risk assessment methodologies and implications in regulation. | |
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International
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Si |
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Congress
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New Genetic Engineering Techniques for Tree Improvement Program |
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Entity
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COST Action FP0905 |
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Entity Nationality
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Sin nacionalidad |
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Place
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Start Date
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12/02/2014 |
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End Date
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14/02/2014 |