Marcus Wallenberg Prize 2017
Better quality and higher productivity are the incentives for molecular genetics of forest trees. Ronald R. Sederoff is awarded the 2017 Marcus Wallenberg Prize for his breakthroughs in developing methods for gene discovery in conifer species and exploiting new breeding technologies for improved properties.
Professor Ronald R. Sederoff, North Carolina State University, USA, was one of the first scientists in the field of molecular genetics of forest trees. >From the early 1990s he was involved in almost all the early studies on genetic modification of conifer trees, quantitative genetic studies and later also tree genomics.
Innovations for the forest industry
Ronald R. Sederoff has explained that the purpose of his work is to better understand the biology of forest trees and to use this information to accelerate breeding.
He established in 1988 the Forest Biotechnology Group at North Carolina State University to concentrate on the genetic basis of quantitative traits in trees.
Until then tree breeding had focused on understanding the inheritance of different traits, without directly caring about the actual genes that determined these traits. Ronald R. Sederoff was one of the first tree geneticists trying to link biological properties with genetic information in trees, so called genetic mapping, using the newest markers available to identify important properties like rust resistance, tree growth and wood quality. His group has been actively working on sequencing pine and American chestnut genomes.
His group has also specialized on the molecular basis of the structure of wood to investigate the biochemical and genetic basis of cell wall formation. Their focus is on the pathway for lignin biosynthesis and cell wall structural proteins.
Ronald R. Sederoff has provided the forestry sector with new methods and applications for tree breeding and valuable information to be used in the restoration of for example the American chestnut, which is today on the verge of extinction due to a devastating fungal disease.
Read more at: http://www.mwp.org/forest-molecular-genetics-to-improve-the-quality-of-trees/
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