New project: genetics and dendrochronology
04.30.2019
The Russian Science Foundation supported the project “Study of genetic adaptation of trees to stress environmental factors on the basis of genome-wide and dendrochronological analysis in the context of global climate change”, carried out jointly by the Genom Research and Education Center of SibFU and the Scientific and Educational Laboratory “Dendroecology and Environmental Monitoring”.
In the project, it is planned to analyze the genetic basis of the individual response of Siberian larch trees in the forest-steppe zone of the Republic of Khakassia to the recurrent droughts (1930, 1932, 1946, 1959, 1965, 1974) that caused severe growth depression and death of some trees. In particular, we plan to analyze the growth of larch trees at 3-5 sites along the foothills of the Batenevsky Ridge. Dendrophenotypes most resistant to droughts, i.e. with less growth depression and rapid recovery of normal growth will be identified. The proposed study is unique and was not conducted in the Russian boreal forests. The project team has extensive experience in dendrochronology and genomics, and successful experience in joint dendrogenetic studies. It should be also noted that the project participants obtained the reference genome of Siberian larch, which was assembled and annotated in the Laboratory of Forest Genomics of the Siberian Federal University as part of a megagrant under the leadership of Prof. K. V. Krutovsky that greatly facilitates the implementation of the tasks and guarantees the success of the proposed project.
