Not only do gum trees help us manage salinity in the soil and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but they are now bred and farmed intensively as the most important source of short fibre for the world’s paper industry, and for their solid hardwood.
But, of the 15 million hectares of eucalypts under cultivation worldwide, Australia accounts for less than 1 million hectares. And we are contributing very little to learning about eucalypt genes.
Only three of hundreds of species of this hugely diverse group are widely grown. So it represents a largely unexploited genetic resource. Biologically and industrially Eucalyptus is a good candidate for applied genomics.
Yet, of several significant initiatives investigating the genetic resources of Eucalyptus—in Japan, Brazil and the US in particular—none at present involves Australia as a core contributor.
For example, a project is underway in Japan, funded by a local prefecture (Chiba prefecture) to sequence Eucalyptus camaldulensis. This project started in 2004, sponsored by Oji Paper and sequencing is taking place at the Kazusa DNA Research Institute. Unlike the major US supported studies, this genome information will not be publicly available. i.e. it will be difficult for the Australian industry and researchers to access this information as we have not contributed to the project.
Why does Australia need the eucalyptus genome?
For industry
All countries involved in eucalypt plantation forestry and investing molecular breeding or genomics, including Australia, stand to benefit if they have access to the eucalyptus genome.
The public release of the eucalypt genome sequence will trigger a massive expansion in the number of research projects on eucalypts which over the long run will transform the wood fibre industry from a primary industry to a high technology industrial sector – producing not just wood, but feedstuffs for a host of industrial processes – replacing petrochemicals.
Australia could have the advantage as, while eucalypts are internationally important genetic resources, they mainly originate from Australia.
For conservation
Australia stands to gain unique knowledge about the ecology and conservation of the trees which dominate much of Australia's forested landscape.
Eucalypt forests are one of our most important natural assets and their continual preservation requires that we develop better knowledge of their biology, and of how the tree genome, the environment and the diverse array of plants and animals that depend on the tree, interact to create sustainable eucalypt forests.
What is holding us back?
Money, but not a lot.
The Japanese initiative is closed to us. But there is an international push to persuade the US Joint Genome Initiative to sequence Eucalyptus.
Australia could, and should, play a role in this project. We have well respected scientists willing and able to contribute. While the total project may cost $10 million dollars, only 10% of that amount would buy Australia a seat at the table. And importantly, as Australia’s participation in the cow genome project has shown, a small contribution early in the life of the project can bring significant opportunities to influence the direction of the project.
The bottom line
We are high cost producers in relation to our international competitors, so we need every bit of advantage that science can bring to bear. And we can’t expect access to the genome intellectual property generated overseas, unless we contribute something to it.
Australia is the custodian of the eucalypt genetic resource for the world. To conserve and protect it, we need to know a lot more about the genome.”
National priorities
Sequencing the Eucalyptus genome fits within the National Research Priority: an Environmentally Sustainable Australia (Sustainable use of Australia's biodiversity).
Technical details
Sequencing the Eucalyptus grandis genome: A proposal is being drafted by the International Eucalyptus Genome Consortium (IEuGC), to be submitted to the US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI). The DOE has short listed the sequencing of a eucalypt in 2007 (4X coverage using shotgun approach) under its Laboratory Science Program, funded by DOE.
In order to succeed, this proposal needs strong backing from the international community. The DOE project will fund the sequencing and the automated annotation of the sequence. Other genomic activities need to be put in place to back the overall project coming from IEuGC.
Brazil has agreed to give significant backing to the project in the preparation of the DNA to be sequenced, construction of BAC libraries, physical mapping, and provision of their large EST database to help the annotation of the genome sequence.
This project will make the DNA sequence completely public. Another difference with the camaldulensis project is that the grandis project also aims to integrate the sequence with both genetic and physical mapping resources. Various groups in South Africa, Belgium and the USA have agreed to provide some backing to the overall project.
Australian researchers are very interested in this project and have been contributors to the overall plan. However, Australian scientists are not in a position to be large contributors on the project due to lack of funding.
In order to actively participate in the Eucalyptus grandis project, researchers in Australia have been seeking relatively small research funding, for example
- A Discovery grant was submitted in February 2006 that seeks funds to develop ultra-high density linkage maps with high throughput marker technology [ARC Discovery (DP0770506). Vaillancourt, Hecht, Myburg, Kilian (2007-2009).
- Ultra-high-throughput genotyping of Eucalyptus trees: Development and application of diversity array technology for genomic studies. Seeking $626,459.
- An International Science Linkages proposal is being prepared, and will be submitted in August 2006 that will seek funding for a project entitled "Australian support for the international project to sequence and annotate the Eucalyptus genome.”
However, what we really need is a large Australian contribution which would allow increasing the E. grandis genome coverage from 4X and at least double this to 8X. The proposed 4X coverage is not enough to ensure that a large fraction of the genome is sequenced. 8X coverage would increase the reliability of the sequence data and also decrease the likelihood that important genes are missed. This would cost several million dollars.
For further information contact:
Dr Rene Vaillancourt
Dept Plant Science, U Tasmania
Hobart
R.Vaillancourt@utas.edu.au
03 6226 7137
