Home  Large Projects FuncFiber
|
Funcfiber – A Formas Centre of Excellence in Wood Science |
 |
 |
FuncFiber is a formas-funded centre of excellence in wood science, based at UPSC, with partners from Umeå Univer- sity, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Royal Institute of Technology. The overall goal is to give the forest industry the potential to produce planting stock with improved growth and fibre properties using molecular breeding. This is achieved by identification and functional understanding of key genes responsible for biomass production, fibre morphology, fibre ultrastructure and chemistry, to provide tools for forest biotechnology applications.
 Sammanfattning på svenska
FuncFiber is an interdisciplinary program. It involves 12 research groups and ca. 50 scientists in total, with expertise in wood biology, wood chemistry and analysis, metabolomics, proteomics and chemometrics. An important aspect of the program is wood phenotyping. For this purpose, chemomet- rics combined with modern analytical tools have been used to develop novel state-of-the-art technology for wood analysis, for example in the fields of 2D NMR spectroscopy, FT-IR microspectroscopy and pyrolysis-mass spectrometry.
 |
 |
| Aspen is used as a model tree in FuncFiber research. The micrographs show a transverse section of a young aspen stem (left) and aspen wood in higher resolution (right) with diff erent wood cell types; vessels fi bers and rays. |
A major hub in the program is the FuncFiber database. Candidate genes are identified in the extensive UPSC expres- sion databases of wood-forming genes in aspen. Transgenic trees and preliminary phenotyping are performed in a high throughput fashion by the FuncFiber partner SweTreeTechnologies (STT). Trees with modified wood properties are cultured for further analysis to be included in the FuncFiber database. In the database, more detailed information about wood properties is collected by different FuncFiber projects (wood polymer chemistry, metabolites, mechanical and processing properties). The database is currently under construction and will be accessible from a user-friendly interface. To date (2009), ca. 700 candidate genes have been screened by STT, and 60 genes are now included in the FuncFiber database.
The FuncFiber program and the FuncFiber database create phenotyping tools and aspen mutants for cutting- edge basic research carried out in individual projects. This research touches on several important aspects of wood development, such as meristem biology, mechanisms of cell expansion, cell wall biosynthesis and cell death.
For more information:
Contact: Prof. Björn Sundberg, Program Director
Phone +46 (0)90-786 8382
Email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
|
May 2013 |
|
|
Mo
|
Tu
|
We
|
Th
|
Fr
|
Sa
|
Su
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
19
|
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
26
|
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
|
|
|
|
UPSC på Svenska 
