We examined gene expression patterns in the lignin-degrading fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium when it colonizes hybrid poplar (Populus alba × tremula) and syringyl (S)-rich transgenic derivatives. A combination of microarrays and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) allowed detection of a total of 9,959 transcripts and 793 proteins. Comparisons of P. chrysosporium transcr...

Community genetics hypothesizes that within a foundation species, the genotype of an individual significantly influences the assemblage of dependent organisms. To assess whether these intra-specific genetic effects are ecologically important, it is required to compare their impact on dependent organisms with that attributable to environmental variation experienced over relevant spatial scales. ...

Dehydrins are group II, late embryogenesis abundant proteins that act putatively as chaperones in stressed plants. To elucidate the function of dehydrins in poplar, we isolated the SK(2)-type dehydrin gene Podhn from Populus alba x P. tremula var. glandulosa suspension cells and analyzed its expression following treatments of abiotic stress, wounding and plant growth regulator. Sequence homolog...

Phenological time series of flowering and bud burst of Populus tremula (L.) and Betula sp., and the flowering of Pinus sylvestris (L.), Alnus glutinosa (L.) and Alnus incana (L.) were constructed from data collected in Finland during the period 1896–1955. The resulting combined time series were examined with two aims in mind: first, to determine the phenological regularities between different s...

The Paulownia tree is one of the most important fast growing species in the World and is an ideal multipurpose tree. In this study, the potential use of Paulownia wood (Paulownia elongata) as a raw material for the pencil manufacturing industry is investigated. Currently, poplar, cedar, and juniper species are most commonly used in this industry. However, Paulownia wood is a fast growing specie...

Autumn senescence in mature aspens, grown under natural conditions, is initiated at almost the same date every year. The mechanism of such precise timing is not understood but we have previously shown that the signal must be derived from light. We studied variation in bud set and autumn senescence in a collection of 116 natural Eurasian aspen (Populus tremula) genotypes, from 12 populations in ...

Background The hemoglobin produced by Vitreoscilla bacterium, VHb, is capable to promote the respiratory activity and ATP production under hypoxic conditions [1]. In micro-organisms grown under oxygen-limited conditions, the heterologous vhb expression improves the production of primary and secondary compounds, growth as well as stress tolerance [2,3]. VHb has also been shown to protect plants ...

Sap is driven through phloem sieve tubes by an osmotically generated pressure gradient between source and sink tissues. In many plants, source pressure results from thermodynamically active loading in which energy is used to transfer sucrose (Suc) from mesophyll cells to the phloem of leaf minor veins against a concentration gradient. However, in some species, almost all trees, correlative evid...

Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized the methods for studying microbial ecology by enabling high-resolution community profiling. However, the use of these technologies in unraveling the plant microbiome remains challenging. Many bacterial 16S rDNA primer pairs also exhibit high affinity for non-target DNA such as plastid (mostly chloroplast) DNA and mitochondrial DNA. The...

The European aspen (Populus tremula) is thought to reproduce mostly asexually. Thus aspen forms clones, in which several ramets belong to one genetically defined genet. We compared the clonal structure of aspen in old-growth and managed forests in southern and northeastern Finland. Clones were identified using morphological characters and nine microsatellite loci originally developed for Populu...