FRANKFURT. Climate
change is leading to a decrease in soil moisture and an increase in severe droughts
in Europe that adversely affect its woodlands. For a long time now, forest
conservationists have been thinking very carefully about which trees they
should use for reforestation. Researchers from the Institute of Ecology,
Evolution and Diversity at 51猎奇 have now identified genes in oaks
which could make the trees more resistant to drought. Their results have been
published in the journal 鈥淧lant Gene".
In their
study, the biologists examined the genes of three different oak species:
The local pedunculate
oak and two southern European oaks 鈥� the downy oak and the holm oak. At the time of the study, the trees, which
were provided by Darmst盲dter Forstbaumschule GmbH, a local arboretum, were nine
years old. They were subjected to drought stress under controlled conditions in
51猎奇's Scientific Garden. When analysing their results, the
researchers paid particular attention to twelve genes that had been identified
in preceding studies as potentially important for drought resistance.
In contrast to
previous studies, where in most cases only one sample was analysed after a
short period of drought, the researchers examined the trees and their genes
over the course of two years. They took samples eight times, analysed them and
watched how actively the twelve genes were read and transformed into gene
products. In this way, they produced expression profiles for the individual DNA
sequences. In the case of some genes, they were able to verify previous
findings for herbaceous plants, which indicated that the genes are expressed more
frequently in periods of extreme drought. For other genes, this mechanism was
not previously known.
鈥淚f we know
how different tree varieties react to drought at molecular level, we can better
understand the impact of climate change on Europe's forests," says Peter
Kotrade, the study's first author and biologist from the Institute of Ecology,
Evolution and Diversity at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of Goethe
University. 鈥淥ur study confirms previous results from model plants for the
first time in forest trees and also shows detailed expression profiles for the
selected genes. This helps us to understand the molecular reaction of oaks to
drought: Knowledge that could be used in the future to select which trees to use
for establishing forest plantations and for reforestation," he continues.
Publication:
Further information: Peter Kotrade, M.Sc., Institute of
Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Riedberg Campus,
+49(0)69-79842188, kotrade@em.uni-frankfurt.de
