TRANZFOR programme : "Soaking up the CO2" - in International Innovation (Research Media) - August...

8/4/2019 TRANZFOR programme : "Soaking up the CO2" - in International Innovation (Research Media) - August 2011, p106-

1/8|June 2010: Healthcare || 2011 |

Disseminating science, research and technology

TRANZFORTalking to the TRANZFOR team from both sides of the globe

TRANZFORTransferring research betweenEU and Australia-New Zealandon forestry and climate change

SUSTAINPINEFrancisco M Cnovas on helping to boost Europes forest-based sector


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Research exchanges between Australasia and Europe increase our understanding of theessential role that forests and forestry play in adaptation to and mitigation of climatechange, as members of the TRANZFOR team from both sides of the globe explain

Soaking upthe CO2

Can you provide an overview of theTRANZFOR project and what it is that theTRANZFOR team aim to achieve throughthis initiative?

The TRANZFOR project is a four-yearjoint programme of scientific cooperationconcerning 75 people for exchange periodsvarying between two and 12 months.TRANZFOR provides mobility possibilitiesto individual staff members from youngscientists to technicians and senior

researchers. The project also providessupport to five major research organisationsto establish and strengthen long-termresearch cooperation on forestry and climatechange. Its main goal is to develop researchpartnerships through staff exchanges andnetworking activities between three Europeanresearch organisations in France, Portugal,the UK and two organisations in Australia andNew Zealand.

Who are the primary participants inTRANZFOR and how did they come to beinvolved in the project?

TRANZFOR has developed from activebilateral cooperation over the pastdecade between five individual countriesand partners. The Seventh FrameworkProgramme (FP7) IRSES scheme provideda great opportunity to integrate thosepast collaboration activities into acoherent programme addressing an issueof high priority on the political agenda ofthe European Union, New Zealand andAustralia in relation with developmentof national strategies for adaptation toclimate change.

How has TRANZFOR helped to improve the

mobility of individual researchers betweenproject partners?

So far, 30 researchers from the Europeaninstitutions and countries involved inTRANZFOR have had the opportunity totravel and stay for several months in Australiaand New Zealand (and vice versa) and startresearch projects that otherwise would neverhave taken place. There were common researchinterests among the several partners involvedin TRANZFOR but, in most cases, no common

projects had yet started. Of particular interestfor the TRANZFOR partners is the relationshipbetween forestry and climate change, namelythe potential for forestry to adapt to andto mitigate climate changes, for examplethrough CO

2sequestration in planted forests.

Some of the ongoing collaborative actions inTRANZFOR will have impact on the definitionsof future policies regarding measures relatedto forests and forest management.

Are any TRANZFOR partners conductingresearch into forestry and its relationshipwith climate change?

The fluxes of energy, CO2, water vapourand other gases between forests and theatmosphere are a major component of theglobal exchanges between the atmosphereand terrestrial surface of earth. Indeed, ithas been estimated that by 2030, forestecosystems could provide abatement forabout 25 per cent of the worlds currentCO

2emissions arising from the combustion

of fossil fuels through a combination ofreduced deforestation, sustainable forestmanagement and afforestation. Thus all fiveTRANZFOR partners have strong interests inaddressing the relationship between forestryand climate change.

Have you identified any tree breedingor genomic strategies that have shownparticular promise in each region?

All five TRANZFOR countries utilise non-native species as a component of theirplantation forest systems (including biofuelcrops) and a number of common speciesare used across TRANZFOR countries (eg.Pinus radiata Pinus pinasterand Eucalyptus).This is known to enhance productivityin managed forests allowing native and

semi-natural woodlands to be protected.Now, as a result of climate change, the useof introduced species and adapted geneticmaterial through novel breeding strategieshas gained new importance because ofthe likely benefits to forest resilience andsustainability.

What would you identify as the greatestsuccess of TRANZFOR to date?

The professional relationships betweenthe organisations in Europe, Australia andNew Zealand have strengthened duringthe course of the project and are excellent.

This is a well-formulated project because itaddresses issues which are of high priorityto all partner countries and where thereis genuine potential for benefits to arisefrom collaborative research. The distancebetween Europe and Australia and NewZealand are such that without the type ofsupport provided by this project it is veryhard to establish and maintain interactiveworking. The high calibre and motivation ofthose scientists involved has already led tosignificant achievements. I very much hopethat the collaborations which have beenestablished can be maintained beyond theend of the current project.

Drs Jean-Michel Carnus, Margarida Tom, Michael Battaglia, Tim Payn and Peter Freer-Smith

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Distance is no barrierOne of the highest priorities on EU and Australasian political agendasis climate change adaptation. In response, TRANZFOR partners arecollaborating to transfer research knowledge for the forestry sector

AS THE WORLDheads towards a low carboneconomy, it is absolutely crucial to find ways to

reduce the CO2

being emitted. The flip side of thisis the essential role performed by those systemswhere atmospheric CO

2is reabsorbed. Otherwise

known as carbon sinks, these are now recognisedglobally as one of the most important ways tooffset carbon emissions. The two most importantnatural carbon sinks are absorption by theoceans through biological and physicochemicalprocesses, and photosynthesis by terrestrialplants and forests.

A considerable amount of time and energy isbeing spent to investigate the importance of

forests for managing the impacts of climatechange and the crucial role they play in climatechange adaptation. But one of the main barriersfor experts working in this field is the abilityto gain access to other research and studyoutcomes. A project called Transferring researchbetween the European Union and Australia/New Zealand on forestry and climate change(TRANZFOR) is aiming to break down thesebarriers. The main objective of TRANZFOR is topromote research exchange in the sector throughshort- to medium-term staff exchanges atdifferent research institutes in Europe, Australiaand New Zealand.

Key work programmes being carried out aspart of this project include genomics and treebreeding, forest models, environmental services,risk assessment and bio-energy. The priority ofthe TRANZFOR team is to document and discussemerging issues and forest adaptation prioritieswithin these key themes to support futureexchanges as well as provide input into the EUsclimate change related areas.

IMPROVED COLLABORATION

LEADS TO INCREASED CAPACITY

New Zealand, Australia and the EU may havehad informal collaborations in forestry in the

past but TRANZFOR takes this collaborationto a much higher level, where the research andpolicy challenges concerning forests and climatechange are all being faced in similar ways.The aim of TRANZFOR is to build long-terminstitutional collaboration with many follow-oneffects. TRANZFOR Project Coordinator, Jean-Michel Carnus based at the Institut Nationalde la Recherche Agronomique in France seesmany similarities in knowledge and technologicaldevelopment and research organisation betweenEurope, Australia and New Zealand. However,he believes that one of the greatest challengesis to attract young people from outside the EUto come and work within an European research

context and that the project is set to change

this: The TRANZFOR scheme has been quitsuccessful with young researchers and Phstudents who have been able to do part otheir thesis or post-doctorate in the exchangcountry. This means that coordinating researcpartnerships and building relationships betweeEurope, Australia and New Zealand can oncontinue to improve.

Michael Battaglia, a researcher at thCommonwealth Scientific and IndustriResearch Organisation in Australia, believethat the advantages of CSIROs involvement TRANZFOR is that they can now build teamwhich have a larger set of capabilities than sing

organisations working on their own can generalassemble: This global capability should leato individual partners being able to make morrapid progress on climate change issues. Beininvolved in the TRANZFOR project means thaTim Payn, based at the Scion Research Institutin New Zealand, now has the opportunity ttap into overseas expert knowledge that hmay not have previously had access to. It is hopinion that TRANZFOR brings communicatioopportunities and capacity building in individuacountries where there may have been littbefore: A specific example of this would be in tharea of physiological process-based modellingThe TRANZFOR collaboration has allowed New

Zealand scientists to piggy-back off expertisin the EU and Australia, he highlights. Payis in no doubt that this has resulted in a morrapid adoption of the approach in New Zealandhelped by easier access to collaborators modeand knowledge.

FINDING COMMONALITIES

IN TREE SPECIES

It is not just New Zealand and Australia thaare benefiting from TRANZFOR, the data aninformation coming out of these countrieis helping to enrich EU research into climatchange and its effects on forestry and vic

versa: Identification of the commonalities andifferences between the countries was crucia

DISSECTING LOGS INNEW ZEALAND

BOB SHULA

TRANZFOR

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Could you begin by outlining the overall

purpose of SUSTAINPINE and what theproject hopes to achieve?

The main objective of this project is todevelop and integrate multidisciplinarygenomic research in the maritime pinespecies. Our research activities aim toincrease genomic resources and to studycandidate genes involved in the regulation ofmaritime pine development, growth, and theresponse to environmental stress, capitalisingon data from previous projects. The expectedmajor outcome is to propose practical,market-based strategies to maintain thecompetitiveness of forest industries by

improving biomass and wood productivity ofconifer forests, even under stress conditions.We also aim to specifically provide newknowledge for the European forest-basedsector, which promotes the use of renewableresources in the context of global climatechange.

In what way does this project support theprinciples of the EU Forest-based sectorTechnology Platform (FTP)?

An important aim of this proposal is topromote the rapid transfer of knowledge tonew and established industries in the forest

sector, thereby increasing competitivenessand innovation within the EU. The projectreinforces European leadership in conifergenomics, providing advantages to theEuropean forest-based sector in the globalmarket, as indicated in the research agendaof the FTP.

One of the projects two private partners is thesupport body of the FTP for France, who aredirectly addressing several key points of thestrategic research agenda of the EU-FTP.

Could you outline the work you do at theUniversity of Malaga and how you can

relate it to SUSTAINPINEs goals?

Our research group has extensive experiencein gene identification, and structural and geneexpression analyses, which investigates the rolesof key genes for plant growth and development.The laboratory has gained a reputable statusin the study of nitrogen metabolism, withmajor contributions to the understandingof the molecular regulation of ammoniumassimilation and amino acid metabolism. Inthe last few years we have also been studying

the transcriptional regulation of this process.We integrate our expertise and experience withother partners in the SUSTAINPINE project toreach the proposed objectives.

What are some of the challenges orobstacles you expect to face and how willyou work to overcome them?

An important challenge of this project is toincorporate genomic technologies into amaritime pine improvement programme, inorder to efficiently capture genetic gain forrelevant traits. The identification of genomicareas associated with a given trait is particularly

challenging in conifers such as maritime

pine, which have extremely large genomes.However, with the accumulation of informationon pathways controlling important breedingcharacteristics, the candidate gene approacheswe are following appear promising.

Do you hope to apply the projects work toforests outside of Europe and collaboratefurther internationally?

Yes, the integration of research capacities willstrengthen the international position of Europearesearch in forest genomics in general, and inparticular with the International Initiative forConifer Genome Sequencing. The project also

aims to strengthen an international collaboratiowith North American initiatives: research groupsin the U.S. and Canada working in the genomicsof conifers such as Pinus taeda or Picea glauca.

What have been the notable achievementsof the project so far?

We now have a better understanding ofthe maritime pine transcriptome, and newadvances have been made to determine thefunction of relevant genes involved in treegrowth, wood formation and the response toenvironmental stress.

What possible economic benefits will theEU and the forest industry see as a result ofSUSTAINPINEs work?

The project is generating novel genomics-based,bio-analytical tools that will improve our abilityto assess tree growth and development. In themid and long term, this will result in improvedquantitative and qualitative sustainable woodproduction. It is expected that new knowledgeand genomic technologies developed in thisproject will be easily transferred to other treespecies of economic and ecological interest. Thepotential benefits of this project are scientificallyand economically important to Europe.

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Malaga, Francisco M Cnovas

explains how the SUSTAINPINE projects results will help to boost Europes forest-based sector

SUSTAINPINE

Growing pinesustainably

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MANY ENVIRONMENTS AND resources arefacing new issues with the threat of climatechange, and forests are amongst those mostaffected. Forests play a fundamental role in the

regulation of the Global Cycle of Carbon, climaticchange, control of erosion and biodiversitymaintenance. Acting like sponges for excesscarbon dioxide, they are a key factor in reducingglobal warming. The European forest-basedsector has to cope with the progressive impactof global climate change in the context ofincreasing economic competition amongstindustrial forest areas. There is also an ever-rising international demand for wood, as woodconstitutes an attractive biomass as a sustainableenergy source. In this scenario, genomics andbiotechnology are needed to accelerate forestmanagement in order to enhance sustainable andcompetitive production. Therefore the primary

aim of SUSTAINPINE is the application of thelatest technologies towards the identificationof key genes determining adaptive traits inconifers, which are crucial for forest productivity,conservation and management.

THE PERFECT PINE

Pine trees are important for several reasons. Theyhave a simple structural design, with straighttrunks and an almost geometrical branchinghabitat that makes them ideal for timberproduction. They also grow faster than manyother trees, and are therefore easier to managein plantations. SUSTAINPINE focuses on the

maritime pine a model tree species of highecological interest in nearly every Mediterraneanand Atlantic country in Europe.

The French, Portuguese and Spanish maritimepine forests cover more than 4 million hectaresand constitute a vital area for the strongintegration of the forest industry and sustainablenatural resources management, generating arange of scientific activities. In addition to this,more than any other species of tree, the maritimepine also has a capacity to sustain salinity anddrought, making it increasingly important tocountries outside of Europe such as South Africa,New Zealand and Australia. The trees resinalso confers a high calorific value to its wood,making it an excellent biofuel. Previous projectsdemonstrate that wood formation and droughttolerance could be efficiently described in trees

by molecular biology and physiology tools.

BRANCHING OUT WITH KNOWLEDGE

SUSTAINPINE aims to identify the key genesthat determine adaptive traits in the maritimepine, using the latest technologies available. Thefirst aim is the isolation of novel maritime pineexpressed sequence tags (ESTs), with the hopeto extend the number of maritime pine ESTsfrom approximately 26,000 to at least 80,000.The second task will be to perform a large-scaleexpression analysis to identify candidate genes todetermine the temporal and spatial distributionof transcripts. Next, functional studies of about

50 selected candidate genes will be performed,with the choice of genes determined by theregulation of development, growth, and responseto environmental stress; these selected candidate

genes will then be submitted to genetic mapping.

Work will subsequently be concerned withthe exploration of natural diversity of theselected candidate genes in maritime pinepopulations, and finally candidate genes forgrowth and wood quality will also be selected forassociation mapping. The project will also applybioinformatics methods to store, process andexcavate all data delivered by the project. This willespecially facilitate the coordinated analysis ofstructural, expressional and functional data.

The ultimate goal of the research is to delivermultiple integrated data from existing, or newly

discovered, candidate genes. When appliedpractically, the results will benefit pine breeders,presenting them with new molecular selectioncriteria to ensure more efficient design of adaptedvarieties for increased productivity throughimproved growth and wood properties, as wellas superior sustainability through adaptation todrought or nutritional stresses. This enhancedcontrol of tree productivity will ultimatelybenefit the forest industries and other woodand biomass users. This project is strongly aimedat contributing to the development of a forestcrop with the potential of resource cascading fordifferent energetic and industrial applications in asustainable bioeconomy.

A sustainable future

The SUSTAINPINE project aims to provide new knowledge for the European forest-based sector about

the maritime pine tree; research hoping to overcome some of the effects of climate change on forest regions

SUSTAINPINE

INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION


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EVERGREEN COLLABORATIONS

One key to SUSTAINPINEs success is thecooperation between those Europeanlaboratories with unique and complementary

expertise to develop the proposed research, andsubsequently a number of useful partnershipsand collaborations have been put in place toensure the project meets its aims. The researchconsortium is supported by wood-basedindustries of several countries and includesinput from some of the top scientists fromFrance, Germany, Portugal and Spain, includingworld leaders in different aspects of conifer treebiotechnology, such as nitrogen metabolism andphotosynthesis, wood formation, stress, tissueculture and gene transfer, and bioinformatics.By combining all of its facilities, resources andtechnical expertise to study the problem, theconsortium greatly increase the probability of

significant scientific discovery. No single nationin Europe has the necessary expertise andtechnical infrastructure to carry out the proposedresearch programme alone, and subsequently acollaborative approach is the best strategy.

One of the most significant advantagesopen to the consortium is the availabilityof the research facilities of Andalucia Tech,an International Campus of Excellence witha sustainable impact on the cultural, socialand economic environment. Andalucia Techspecialises in Communications and InformationTechnologies (CIT), Production Technologies(PT) and Biotechnology. Project Coordinator

Francisco M Canovas is eager to stress thequality of the work carried out at the site:Our laboratory has been involved for morethan 20 years in functional genomics studies inhigher plants by using a variety of experimental

approaches and including biochemical,immunological, recombinant-DNA techniquesand more recently transcriptomic, proteomicand bioinformatic analyses, he states.SUSTAINPINE is one of the most representativebiotechnology projects of Andalucia Tech,and this research facility looks set to act as animportant place hub to attract new scientifictalent at international level.

The project expects to assemble a great dealof dispersed data. Successful coordination ofdata requires the integration of all datasetsinto a single database via a web interface whereall project members can deposit and share

information. The Second Work Package (WP2)of the project is concerned with this task, and isone of the major achievements of the project todate, with a web portal already online. The portalalso provides useful links to the partners pagesand information about the project availablefor the general public. Database tables will beconstructed using sequences as the key to buildrelations, and will be hosted by the 8 OracleDatabase Servers at the PAB. The project is set toconclude in April 2013, by which time it is hopedthat the objectives of the project shall be met,and the future of maritime pine, its productivity,and its role in helping with climate change willbe greatly fortified.

SUSTAINPINEGENOMIC TOOLS IN MARITIMEPINE FOR ENHANCED BIOMASSPRODUCTION AND SUSTAINABLEFOREST MANAGEMENT

OBJECTIVES

To propose practical, marker-based

strategies to maintain the competitivenessof forest industries by improving biomassand wood productivity of conifer forestseven under stress conditions.

PARTNERS

Universidad de Malaga - Biologia

Molecular y Bioquimica, SpainCentro de Investigaciones Forestales,

Instituto Nacional de Investigacin yTecnologa Agraria y Alimentaria, SpainUniversidad de Alcala, SpainUniversidad de Valencia, SpainInstituto de Tecnologia Qumica e

Biolgica, PortugalINRA Pierroton, FranceINRA Orleans, FranceFCBA, FranceGttingen University, GermanyHumboldt University of Berlin, GermanyTRAGSA, Spain

FUNDING

Funded under the European Commissions

PLANT-KBBE 2009 Programme Scientificand Technological Cooperation in Plant

Genome Research. Ref. PLE2009-0016

CONTACT

Francisco M Canovas

Project Coordinator

Molecular Biology and Plant BiotechnologyFaculty of Science

University of MalagaCampus Universitario de Teatinos,

29071 MlagaSpain

T +34 9521 31942E [email protected]

www.scbi.uma.es/sustainpine

FRANCISCO M CNOVASis a Professorof Molecular Biology at Malaga University

where he has been responsible of the Researc

Facilities and the PhD programme in Molecula

and Cellular Biology. He is currently the head

of the Molecular Biology Laboratory and the

Unit of Functional Genomics.

INTELLIGENCE

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