Gene Namkoong

Genetic correlations for growth rhythm and growth capacity at ages 3–8 years in provenance hybrids of Picea abies

Genetic correlations were calculated between five phenologicai traits and two growths capacity traits at the ages 3–8 years in a nursery trial with full‐sib families of Picea abies (L.) Karst. from a 9 × 9 factorial mating. The parents originated from three regions, northern Sweden, central Sweden and central Europe, each region being represented by six parents. Out of the possible 81 crosses 57 were analysed. Genetic correlations were calculated between traits within a year at population and within‐population levels and between the same trait over years, both among and within populations. At the population level, most correlations were close to one. Within populations between individual parent trees, the correlations between the timing of the growth initiation and the growth midpoint stages were positive and strong with one exception. In most years these stages were also strongly positively correlated with growth cessation. Correlations between growth rhythm and duration of the shoot elongation period we...

Plant genetic resource management: The next investments in quantitative and qualitative genetics

Substantial investments are being made in molecular genetic technology as a means to support plant breeding and improved crop and forestry productivity. We suggest that although these investments will bring some benefits, it is critical that this technology not replace or even limit the expansion of more traditional breeding activities. Biotechnology firms create a situation where investors require almost immediate returns. Globally, this may be at the expense of longer-term returns that will arise from investments in different types of pre-breeding, breeding, testing and selection efforts that are needed in many varieties or populations of lesser-developed species. National and international agencies, responsible for conserving and breeding crop and forest tree genetic resources, need to think about and undertake programs that consider the dynamics of evolutionary change in crops as the main focus, supported by molecular genetics. A better balance between investments in privately funded single-gene technologies, and the maintenance and development of multiple-gene sets in many more species than we consider today, will be of much more value to society in the long run.

Impact of Global Change on Genetic Diversity of Temperate Ecosystems

The genetic diversity that permits populations to evolve and respond to future stresses and selective pressures is the result of its past evolutionary history. Forces that affected its population size and changes in gene and genotypic frequencies have molded the levels and structure of its genetic variation and hence the future evolutionary capacities of its present populations. Therefore, the genetic diversity is both a cause and an effect of global change and is a measure of the dynamic changes underlying genetic variation that both permits and constrains the future evolution of temperate ecosystems. Neither the global climate nor the genetic variation in ecosystems are independent of the effects of the other, and the history of temperate ecosystems involves the joint evolution of genes and environment.