Biotech MERCOSUR project: an integrated genotyping and phenotyping platform of Eucalyptus germplasm for mapping purposes

Background The Biotech MERCOSUR project (85% founded by the European Union) launched in January 2009 and finished in December 2010. The general objective was to establish a regional scientific-technological network to develop a genotyping and phenotyping platform useful for the improvement of Eucalyptus in the region. Two advanced genomic strategies (genetic and association mapping) were applied to investigate the genetic basis of the industrial wood formation and energy production of Eucalyptus plantations. Up to date, no projects were carried out involving the four MERCOSUR countries altogether. The project brought together scientists from 3 MERCOSUR public research institutes and 2 industrial partners from 4 countries. The project was possible thanks to the availability of five evaluated field trials of Eucalyptus, four segregating populations, a high-density Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) resource of wide genome coverage and high transferability technology for the genera [1], as well as phenotypic assessment methods of physical and chemical properties of wood using Near Infrared Reflectance (NIR) [2] together with the classical measurements of growth and wood quality tree properties. The aim of this work is to present the main inputs and results achieved in the project. Materials and methods Plant material Open pollinated (OP) progeny trial of Eucalyptus grandis planted in Argentina: 188 trees from 132 OP families (1 to 3 trees per OP family) from 13 native stand sites in Australia and 3 Argentinean land races. Clonal trial of E. grandis planted in Paraguay: 123 clonal trees most of them with unknown provenances. OP progeny trials of E. globulus planted in Uruguay: 169 trees from 132 OP families (1 to 8 trees per OP family) from 8 Australian geographic races and one Chilean land race. OP progeny trial of E. globulus planted in Argentina: 134 trees from 129 OP families (1 or 2 trees per OP family) from 8 Australian geographic races and 2 landraces from Chile and Portugal. Full-sib progeny trial of E. grandis planted in Argentina: 130 full-sib trees (see García et al. in this journal). E. grandis× E. urophylla: described in [3].