Newsletter May 01
These newsletters
are distributed at irregular intervals by Dag Lindgren. Email me if you want to
be added or removed or having your address changed. An URL address to this
Newsletter is at
http://www-genfys.slu.se/staff/dagl\Papers\Newsletters\Newsletter00to01\Newsletter_May01.htm
it may appear nicer formatted there. Updates compared to distributed version
in italics.
Härmed tillkännages att MSc Kyu-Suk
Kang, Inst för skoglig genetik och
växtfysiologi vid SLU i Umeå, kommer att disputera för
skoglig
doktorsexamen fredagen den 1 juni 2001, kl 10.00 i Hörsal
Björken, SLU i
Umeå, på en avhandling med titeln:
Avhandlingen finns tillgänglig på Institutionen för
skoglig genetik och
växtfysiologi i Umeå, Förvaltningsavdelningen och
Skogsbiblioteket i Umeå
samt på Ultunabiblioteket fr o m den 11 maj 2001.
Opponent är Professor Yousry A. El-Kassaby, Department
of Forest Sciences,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Härmed tillkännages att jägmästare Thúy Olsson, Inst för skoglig genetik
och växtfysiologi vid SLU i Umeå, kommer att disputera
för skoglig
doktorsexamen fredagen den 8 juni 2001, kl 10.00 i Hörsal Björken, SLU
i
Umeå, på en avhandling med titeln:
Avhandlingen finns tillgänglig på Institutionen för
skoglig genetik och
växtfysiologi i Umeå, Förvaltningsavdelningen och
Skogsbiblioteket i Umeå
samt på Ultunabiblioteket fr o m den 18 maj 2001.
Opponent är Dr Nuno Borralho, RAIZ, Centro de
Investigacao Florestal.
Alcoentre, Portugal.
Se vidare http://www.slu.se/aktuellt
The content of the summaries is available on my
website at
http://daglindgren.upsc.se/Papers/Thesis/Thesis_Directory.html
The thesis has been sent to some of you, but more copies are available.
These eight days will be the most busy in the departmental history as
there will be two doctors in plant physiology and one lic in cell and molecular
biology also.
May be the most busy in the whole faculty history or whole SLU history, do you
know another case?
Gabriella Gustafsson
8 juni 2001
Heartwood and Lightwood Formation in Scots Pine
A physiological approach
Helga Schinkel 7 juni 2001
New Isoforms of CuZn-Superoxide Dismutase with High
Isoelectric Points and
Low Abundance in Pine and Poplar
Jan Eklöf 6 juni 2001
Lateran Root development and Auxin Signalling in
Arabidopsis thaliana
Guest lectures in connection with the
forest genetics dissertations
Dr Nuno Borralho, RAIZ, Centro de Investigacao
Florestal PORTUGAL
Dr
Borralho is chief ideologue of one of the most challenging fast rotation turn over
breeding programs in the world.
Lecture room “Boken” second floor,
“Skogshögskolan”, Umeå.
Time: Wednesday June 6 at 9.15
Professor Yousry A. El-Kassaby, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Somatic Embryogenis and its role in
productivity and conservation.
Professor El-Kassaby is as well director of
research of a major Forest Company as an active University Professor and has
thus opportunities to link research and the need of practice better than most
of us.
Lecture room “Boken” second floor,
“Skogshögskolan”, Umeå.
Time: Wednesday June 6 at 10.30
Professor
Lärarförslagsnämnden has found Bengt Andersson
qualified to professor in forest genetics, he will become adjunct professor at
our department (that may mean that in a way he will work for SLU on 20% of
his time, but in practice it will not be much different).
It is good to know that Sweden is still able to produce scientists, who are
competent for professorships in our field, I was a bit worried, when Lärarförslagsnämnden
could not find someone qualified to fill the professorship after Gösta
Eriksson.
National board of forestry
För några månader sedan anställdes Skog D. Jonas Bergquist på
Skogsskötselenheten
på Skogsstyrelsen. Jonas har sin bakgrund som forskare
vid SLU, med
inriktning mot vilt och föryngringsfrågor. Jonas kommer
att som speciellt ansvarsområde ha skogsgenetiska frågor. Jonas
jobbar under perioden fram tom oktober parallellt (50%)
på sin tjänst vid
SLU, Asa försökspark. Därefter kommer han även att
handlägga andra
skogsskötselfrågor.
I comment
that this seems to support the view that our production of PhDs in forest
genetics does not fill the need of the Swedish society. The only applicant,
which had a good background in forest genetics (Thuy Olsson), was close to get
the job, but withdraw at a late stage for personal reasons.
Within
family
Darius D focused my attention on the following goodie:
”Breeders would be foolish to rely entirely on
selection within families…” by Cotterill 1986, Silvae Genetica 35, 5-6
p221-222.
Some presentations about the Swedish breeding, e.g. Rosvall (1999) could have
that as an opening citation. Even if I also agree that breeders should not rely
entirely on within family selection, I think SkogForsk has moved the research
front a bit during the previous decade in that direction.
Degenerated
plants?
We often talk about plants from stands as “natural” and plants from seed
orchards as “improved”. I speculate if it might be justified to call plants
from stands “degenerated” and plants from seed orchards as “natural” instead.
Human has probably had a dysgenic influence on forests. At least in the north
the forests were repeatedly creamed for the best trees. Therefore a single
cycle of plus tree selection may just compensate for historical sins, and can
be considered as a reconstruction of a more natural state. What do you think,
is this reasonable?
Another thought in the same line: Forestry wants a plant from each seed and a
valuable tree from each plant, we are soon there. That must also mean some
negative selection. Part of the breeding effort is just compensating for that.
David Clapham wrote a comment on the Newsletter April01, which some - but
not all - of you have got. I focused attention on:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/publi/gmo/fullrep/ch1.htm
David summarized part of the content of the site as:
Here the authors graph the dramatic rise in
the use of transgenic crops ('Adoption rates for transgenic crops are in some
countries the highest for new technologies by agricultural industry standards,
much faster than has been the case for hybrids'). They point out that the first
generation of transgenic crops have exploited so-called 'input' genes
(herbicide resistance, insect resistance, viral resistance). They then give ten
examples of output/quality traits 'in the pipeline', contributing to the next
generation of transgenic crops. They give cautious reasons why these new
varieties may not be taken up at quite so fast a rate as the first generation
transgenics, which were endorsed by farmers at unprecedented speed (in those
countries where they were allowed to do so).
I appreciate if the newsletters can stimulate discussion and widening perspectives by contributions from others in this way. My initial intention with this newsletter service was actually that it should function as a forum for discussion. I thank David for contributing.
There is a list of field trials with GMO in EU
I have looked at
it. In Sweden the only experiment with trees concerns apple.
The list comprises
experiments with the major forest species (Scots pine, Norway spruce and Silver
Birch) in Finland, but no other country in EU have those species. However, the
Finnish Scots pine and Norway spruce experiments does not refer to field trials,
just pollinations with transgenic pollen and is thus no “field trials”. There
is not a single field trial with conifers in the whole EU!
Intellectual
property rights (IPRs)
These
matters get increasingly important with agricultural GMOs, and it may be reason
to think about what could be relevant for forestry. My eyes fell on a workshop,
workshop proceedings
for review can be downloaded at
http://www.CNR.Berkeley.EDU/csrd/technology/ipcmech/
Additional information on the background of
intellectual property clearinghouse mechanisms for agriculture
is provided at
http://www.CNR.Berkeley.EDU/csrd/technology/ipcmech/IPCM-background.html
Pictures
Some “nice
pictures” from our group in Umeå at
http://www.geocities.com/nebilirus/photo.htm