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| Photo: Leena Suvanto, University of Helsinki |
A method has been developed at Metla for reliable identification of aspen clones bound for vegetative propagation. The method is based on isolation of tree DNA either from leaves or buds. Clone identification is based on ”microsatellites” which are usually composed of repeating sequences in the DNA of two to four bases. The length of microsatellite repetitions varies a great deal between individual trees, which allows good resolution for clone identification. The method was used successfully to identify all 25 hybrid aspen clones and two Populus tremula clones being studied.
Clone labelling is required by the EU directive on marketing of forest reproductive material and by national legislation. The objective of the directive is to ensure that all forest reproductive material available in the EU market is labelled in a consistent way with the point of origin and data on other properties.
Project 7167: Genetic differences in seed production potential of hybrid aspen
Back to the list of the reported finished projects in 2005
