The gene behind the pinecones has been found –

There is a shortage of improved spruce seedlings for forest owners in the country. This is largely due to the long youthful period of youth, which ranges from 20 to 25 years. So they take a long time to set cones.

Researchers from SLU and KTH have now mapped the genetic mechanism that controls pine cone assembly.

The tree has a mutation

In one study, they examined the acrocona spruce, which produces cones early and often. By analyzing the genes that are active at the formation of the bud layer of cones, they succeeded in identifying a gene that controls cone set.

The study showed that acroconagran has a mutation in the gene that makes it more active. This leads to getting cones early, already within 2 years after sowing and every year after that.

can be used for processing

When the genetics regulating cone population are now determined, the knowledge can be used in spruce breeding programmes.

The researchers believe this discovery could lead to increased production in the seed farms that provide forest owners in Sweden with refined, climate-adapted fir plants.

– We imagine the trait is temporarily introduced into trees used in seed farms to increase cone placement there, but then the trait is bypassed away from trees planted in the forest, so that those cones are as normal, says Jens Sundström of SLU and the researcher in charge of the project.

Stady:

Cone setting in the spruce is regulated by the conserved elements of the age-dependent flowering pathwayNew Botany.

Contact:

Jens Sundström is a senior lecturer in the Department of Plant Biology
Swedish University of Agriculture, SLU, [email protected]

Olof Emanuelsson, University Lecturer, KTH, [email protected]