Project description:To better understand the molecular bases of resin production, a major source of terpenes for industry, the transcriptome of adult Pinus elliottii var. elliottii (slash pine) trees under field commercial resinosis was obtained.
Project description:Reforestation is effective in restoring ecosystem functions and enhancing ecosystem services of degraded land. The three most commonly employed reforestation methods of natural reforestation, artificial reforestation with native Masson pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb.), and introduced slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) plantations were equally successful in biomass yield in southern China. However, it is not known if soil ecosystem functions, such as nitrogen (N) cycling, are also successfully restored. Here, we employed a functional microarray to illustrate soil N cycling. The composition and interactions of N-cycling genes in soils varied significantly with reforestation method. Natural reforestation had more superior organization of N-cycling genes, and higher functional potential (abundance of ammonification, denitrification, assimilatory, and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium genes) in soils, providing molecular insight into the effects of reforestation.
Project description:To identify specific gene networks induced in host roots by C. geophilum, we inoculated seedlings of Scots pine simultaneously with C. geophilum and either Suillus granulatus or Rhizopogon roseolus, two common ECM fungi associated to pines. We then measured the differential expression of Scots pine genes in the respective mycorrhizas using oligoarrays. We performed 14 hybridizations (NimbleGen) with samples derived from Pinus sylvestris mycorrhiza with Cenococcum geophilum, Rhizopogon roseolus or Suillus granulatus (3 biological replicates each), as well as from non-mycorrhizal control roots (two replicates). Only the Pinus-derived sequences from the array were considered for this analysis. All samples were labeled with Cy3.