Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Poplars (Populus sp.) grow in every province and territory of Canada and have long been an important part of the economy because of their central role in the pulp and paper industry. More recently, poplars are emerging as an important feedstock for second generation biofuels where they can provide energy as heat or converted to liquid fuel such as ethanol. Mining is also important to the Canadian economy but there is an environmental cost when mine tailings are left behind after the precious metals have been extracted. While large-scale engineering endeavours are primarily used to contain most of the contaminated soil, there is always significant residual contamination that can cause tremendous environmental damage. Some plants and associated fungi, have the ability to bind these heavy metals and either stabilize them in the root/fungal network, or uptake the contaminates into the above ground biomass. Poplars have deep roots, associate with many beneficial fungi including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and show tremendous potential for cleaning up contaminated soil. This research program seeks to better understand how poplars can be used for bioenergy and bioremediation by identifying genes that are responsible for these traits. We are using a large population of activation-tagged poplars to identify genes that control traits related to bioenergy or bioremediation. The 2000 activation-tagged lines reside in a large field trial near Kingston Ontario, are exposed to the full range of Canadian weather and grow to a height of 25 feet. For the past 10 years, my lab has screened the population for distinct phenotypes and more than 75 tagged lines with alterations in wood properties, tree structure, leaf morphology and pest resistance have been found. For this research program, we will extend the screening to identify tagged lines with phenotypes related to bioenergy (quality and quantity of wood biomass) and bioremediation (root architecture, ability to associate with beneficial fungi and uptake contaminants from the soil), and fully characterize the genes that are responsible. Understanding the function of these genes will help poplar breeders in the future select trees for bioenergy or bioremediation applications. Through this research program, at least 14 HQP will be trained in areas of plant anatomy, physiology, molecular biology or genomics, giving these trainees valuable skills for academia, industry or government jobs.