New project on dendrogenomics of Siberian stone pine
04.01.2022
On March 31, 2022, the Russian Science Foundation announced the results of the competition for projects of individual scientific groups to be implemented in 2022-2024. The list of supported projects includes application 22-14-00083 "Dendrogenomic study of the adaptation of the Siberian stone pine in the Western Sayan to extreme environmental factors" under the direction of prof. K. V. Krutovsky. The project will be carried out jointly by the Laboratory of Forest Genomics of SibFU and our Laboratory of Dendroecology and Ecological Monitoring, since the field of study is at the intersection of the work areas of these two research teams.
Within the project framework, the experience of joint research in the field of dendrogenomics already available to the teams will be transferred to the Siberian stone pine. The complexity of these species’ research is higher than for most other conifers in our taiga. Its genome is 2.5 times larger than, for example, Siberian larch. And the tree-ring width reacts more to long-term environmental changes (for example, forest disturbances or forest stand dynamics) than to current climatic fluctuations. Nevertheless, both laboratories were previously interested in this majestic forest giant (not unseccessfully), and therefore we hope to find the key to the relationships of dendrochronological traits with the individual genetic variability of pine trees. The proposed research corresponds to and even outstrips the world state of art. The data obtained in this project will help to understand the adaptive potential of stone pine forests under climate change and will be of great practical use for their conservation and improvement.
