Forest Genetic Breeding in The Context of Climate Change

The forest is the main body of the land ecosystem. It covers about one -third of the land area. It plays an important role in cope with the global climate change and is a veritable "carbon bank". However, increasingly intensified climate change has become a hot issue for global attention. Because of its inherent biological characteristics, forests cannot spontaneously avoid the poor environment, and the genetic improvement is difficult, the cycle is long, and the process is slow.

On August 1, 2024, Wang Jing's team from Sichuan University published an article entitled "Integrating Evolutionary Genomics of Forest Tree Tree Breed Rapid Climate CHANGE" in Plant Communications. In this article, the author focuses on the combination of the research methods of evolutionary genomics with gene editing and genomic selection of breeding technologies to accelerate the huge potential of the new forest and trees that adapt to the future climate.

The research method of evolutionary genomics has played an important role in understanding and predicting species in response to climate change. With the advancement of high-throughput sequencing technology, it is currently easier to obtain a large amount of genome data even for non-model species.

The use of evolutionary genomics and population and landscape genomics methods, first of all, can effectively understand the population structure and evolutionary history of target species, and help to find out the "family bottom" of wild species resources. Secondly, analyze the genetic foundation of environmental adaptation, excavate anti-inverse genetic and mutant resources, and predict the adaptability and vulnerability of the natural distribution area for future climate change, and provide important information for clarifying the relationship between genetic variations, phenotype changes and environmental selection, as well as the core breeding group construction and backbone parent selection. Finally, by inferring the genetic load and changing dynamics of the population, the protection and management strategies of target species and populations can be further guided. These research methods not only deepen the understanding of the environmental adaptability of the species, but also provide valuable data and method support for forest genetic breeding in the context of future climate change.

Figure 1. Research methods and strategies for integrating evolutionary genomics. (Feng, et al., 2024)

The rapid development of sequencing technologies has also significantly expanded the scope of multi-omics analyses and applications, including the fields of high-quality reference genome assembly, population genomics, epigenetics and regulatory genomics, as well as metabolomics and microbiomics. Currently, gap-free T2T high-quality genomes have been successfully assembled in many species, and population genomics is helping to uncover genetic variation in more natural populations. Meanwhile, single-cell transcriptomics and epigenetic regulomics have further revealed the epigenetic variation involved in environmental adaptation and the transcriptional regulation patterns at the single-cell level. Metabolomics and microbiomics are used to detect metabolites and understand plant-microbe interactions. Overall, combining multi-omics sequencing data with functional genomics approaches is expected to provide a solid foundation for exploring how forest tree species will adapt to future climate change.

In the context of rapid global climate change, breeding new germplasm of forest trees with high resistance and broad adaptability has become an urgent need in current forest genetic breeding. The latest technological advances in evolutionary genomics and multi-omics will provide unprecedented insights into the mechanisms of environmental adaptation in forest tree species. To accelerate and streamline forest tree genetic breeding, evolutionary and functional genomics can be integrated into powerful new tools to more comprehensively and accurately identify natural variation associated with species' environmental adaptations, and combined with technologies such as gene editing to develop a new generation of forest tree breeding strategies. In addition, the adoption of appropriate management strategies, such as in situ or translocated conservation, genetic rescue, assisted gene flow, and assisted migration, is essential for mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change on natural populations of forest trees.

In summary, future genomic selection breeding strategies integrating genomics, phenomics and environmental genomics have great potential, and the integration of evolutionary genomics and multi-omics information will provide an important data base for future genetic breeding of forest trees. This review will provide direction and reference for the subsequent investigation of response mechanisms of forest tree species under climate change and the development of breeding programs.

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Reference

1. Feng, J., et al. Integrating evolutionary genomics of forest trees to inform future tree breeding amidst rapid climate change. Plant Commun. 2024 Aug 1:  101044.