Genomics:GTL

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Poplar Tree Offers Potential for Greater Carbon Storage

An international team including the DOE Joint Genome Institute recently sequenced the genome of the black cottonwood or poplar tree (Populus). This research could be used to improve tree breeding and forest management practices that would enable significant quantities of carbon to be sequestered by this and, eventually, other trees. In addition, a significant fraction of carbon associated with a stand of trees is in soil organic-matter pools rather than in aboveground biomass or living roots. The poplar genome sequence information might be used to develop ways to enhance both the production and translocation of organic compounds from leaves and shoots to roots and soil, where it might lead to long-term storage of carbon. In addition to carbon storage, poplar produces products and services of considerable value to humans and many ecosystems. Moreover, poplar trees are highly productive in many environments and have a wide ecological range or distribution.

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Text adapted from Genomics:GTL Roadmap: Systems Biology for Energy and Environment, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, August 2005. DOE/SC-0090.