Genetic engineering in forest trees
Résumé
Despite the importance of forest trees all over the world, molecular studies on these species are rare. Many problems encountered in transformation and regeneration in combination with long generation time and a large genomic size, make trees unattractive for molecular research. ln this paper, we report on research developments in genetic engineering of forest trees with emphasis on transformation and gene expression. We discuss the possibility of adding new phenotypic traits to trees and show that some tree species (such as poplar) can be easily manipulated genetically.