Poplars and pines have been plant flagship agro-forestry crops for bioenergy production, resulting in large amount of resources being devoted to its production and improvement. One of the most important threats to the sustainable growth of trees in plantation is attack by pathogens. Two important aspects in preventing outbreaks are early detection, monitoring and surveillance. Early detection is complicated by the fact that pathogens can remain dormant or have endophytic stages in the host tissues. By sequencing the genomes of pathogens of both poplar and pines, researchers plan to create a pathobiome database that will be used to provide detection, monitoring and surveillance of pathogens in these economically and ecologically important trees. This will in turn enable early detection of new incursions or spread of already present pathogens and rapid response to these events.
Proposer’s Name: Richard Hamelin, University of British Columbia (Canada)