POPLAR TREES: PAPER ON FULL GENOME SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF TWO POPULUS SPECIES PUBLISHED IN PNAS JOURNAL

A study conducted by 27 researchers from 20 research centers in 10 different countries including Sant’Anna School Institute of Life Sciences on full-genome sequence analysis of North American and Eurasian Populus tremula and Populus tremuloides species has been published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) journal.

This study, under the supervision of the Plant Science Center at University of Umea (Sweden), investigated the two poplar species that contain striking levels of genetic variation. The results, not limited to Populus trichocarpa, showed that positive and negative selection broadly affects patterns of genomic variation, but to varying degrees across coding and noncoding regions. In addition, results highlighted the importance of aspens as a powerful study system enabling future studies for understanding the genomic determinants of adaptive evolution.

Researchers Andrea Zuccolo and Rosa Maria Cossu of Sant'Anna School Institute of Life Sciences worked on this project titled Functional and evolutionary genomic inferences in Populus through genome and population sequencing of American and European aspen.

Click here to download the paper.