35th NPS abstract book

Journey into the genome of white spruce:
achievements, lessons and challenges for the future
S1.3
NATHALIE ISABEL 1,2 , JANICE COOKE 3 , NATHALIE PAVY 2 , 11:15–11:45
BETTY PELGAS 1,2 , BENJAMIN HORNOY 2 , JULIEN
PRUNIER 2 , JEAN BEAULIEU 1,2 , ARMAND SÉGUIN 1,2 ,
KERMIT RITLAND 4 , INANC BIROL 5 , JOERG BOHLMANN 6 ,
JOHN MACKAY 2,7 and JEAN BOUSQUET 2
nisabel@rncan-nrcan.gc.ca
1 Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Québec, QC, Canada;
2 Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, Université Laval, Québec, QC,
Canada; 3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, AB, Canada; 4 Department of Forest Sciences, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 5 Michael Smith Genome
Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 6 Michael
Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,
Canada; 7 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Conifer forests are dominant across Canada, yield most of the wood used by the industry, and
provide numerous ecosystem services. Spruces account for sixty percent of the 650 million tree
seedlings planted each year. Changing environments, pressure to conserve forest lands, and demand
for sustainable forest management call for new approaches to increase forest productivity.
Reforestation conducted using seeds with superior growth, wood attributes and adaptability could
be part of the solution but it relies on the development of fast-track tree breeding and high
performance trees.
For more than forty years, tree improvement programs have resulted in tangible productivity gains,
but breeding cycles are long and gains per cycle modest. Around the new millennium, genomic
science was seen as a means of developing tools to characterize and help preserve the natural
genetic diversity of trees, and more rapidly develop new varieties for reforestation. This vision has
become particularly compelling in the context of environmental change and for the adoption of
better sustainable forest management practices.
Over the last decade, extensive genomic resources for white spruce have been developed by two
Genome Canada’s projects, Arborea and Treenomix. More recently, their complementary expertise
were brought together into a unified project, SMarTForests, to break new ground in spruce genome
sequencing, and to achieve efficient translation of results toward end-users from across Canada. The
SMarTForests’ goals were to develop tools to enhance forest health and productivity and to increase
the value recovered from forest plantations.
Accordingly, major achievements have been obtained. The white spruce giga-genome has been
sequenced, a gene map allowing interspecific and inter-generic comparisons has been constructed,
gene catalogue and large registries of high-quality SNPs for population genomics applications have
been set up, functional genomics studies have highlighted processes and networks of genes involved
in pest resistance, adaptation and wood formation, genomic selection models for wood properties
are being transferred to end-users, etc. However, we must be prepared to face new challenges and
new frontiers in this post-genomic era. Like for other conifers, the sheer size and diversity of the
spruce genome still represent significant challenges to further comprehend the mechanisms
underlying observed phenotypes in the forests. Also, given the environmental changes already
affecting boreal forests, genomics and its affiliated ‘omics’ sciences will certainly be key to proposing
valuable adaptation measures in an uncertain future.
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