people realize there’s more to the great trees than their size. Red Wood trees are often examined in biology for their cloning tendencies, as they are prone to sprouting entirely new trees from roots, cut branches, and fallen stumps of grown trees. Not much research has looked at the lineages created by these cloning trees, but a recent study at UC Berkley has pioneered this kind of study. Because Red Woods are hexaploid – that’s right, not one or two but six sets of chromosomes in the genome – their lineages are difficult to trace, especially with the chance of mutation taken into account. In the UC Berkley study, DNA was extracted from 770 redwoods and 449 distinct clones were identified. Because redwoods are prized both for their natural preservation and their youthful lumber, understanding the genetics of redwoods could help create healthy forest management options for redwood lumber as well as help in the current actions beign taken to preserve currently growing redwood areas. The head researcher of this study hopes that clonal studies could expand beyond redwoods to other cloning species, as well as help scientists understand the physical structure of forests.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Red Wood Cloning May Help Forest Management
Red wood trees are well known for their incredible size and
impressive longevity, but very few
people realize there’s more to the great trees than their size. Red Wood trees are often examined in biology for their cloning tendencies, as they are prone to sprouting entirely new trees from roots, cut branches, and fallen stumps of grown trees. Not much research has looked at the lineages created by these cloning trees, but a recent study at UC Berkley has pioneered this kind of study. Because Red Woods are hexaploid – that’s right, not one or two but six sets of chromosomes in the genome – their lineages are difficult to trace, especially with the chance of mutation taken into account. In the UC Berkley study, DNA was extracted from 770 redwoods and 449 distinct clones were identified. Because redwoods are prized both for their natural preservation and their youthful lumber, understanding the genetics of redwoods could help create healthy forest management options for redwood lumber as well as help in the current actions beign taken to preserve currently growing redwood areas. The head researcher of this study hopes that clonal studies could expand beyond redwoods to other cloning species, as well as help scientists understand the physical structure of forests.
people realize there’s more to the great trees than their size. Red Wood trees are often examined in biology for their cloning tendencies, as they are prone to sprouting entirely new trees from roots, cut branches, and fallen stumps of grown trees. Not much research has looked at the lineages created by these cloning trees, but a recent study at UC Berkley has pioneered this kind of study. Because Red Woods are hexaploid – that’s right, not one or two but six sets of chromosomes in the genome – their lineages are difficult to trace, especially with the chance of mutation taken into account. In the UC Berkley study, DNA was extracted from 770 redwoods and 449 distinct clones were identified. Because redwoods are prized both for their natural preservation and their youthful lumber, understanding the genetics of redwoods could help create healthy forest management options for redwood lumber as well as help in the current actions beign taken to preserve currently growing redwood areas. The head researcher of this study hopes that clonal studies could expand beyond redwoods to other cloning species, as well as help scientists understand the physical structure of forests.
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