[COLLOQUE] GENTREE Final Conference 27-31 January 2020 séance 23

GENTREE Final Conference : Clare TRIVEDI - Royal Botanic Gardens Kew · United Kingdom

GENTREE Final Conference 'Genetics to the rescue - managing forests sustainably in a changing environment'

27-31 January 2020, Avignon, France

http://www.gentree-h2020.eu/

Clare TRIVEDI - Royal Botanic Gardens Kew · United Kingdom : Approaches to ensure ex situ conservation activities capture forest genetic diversity: sharing experiences from the UK National Tree Seed Project

Well planned seed bank collections play a vital complementary role toin situ conservation and living ex situ collections of forest geneticresources by protecting genetic diversity away from risks in theenvironment, and providing accessible, well-documented germplasm forresearch and experimentation.

It is vital that such collectionscapture the genetic diversity of a target species over the geographicarea in which it will be used.

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership,led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, comprises a range of seedcollecting projects worldwide.

The UK National Tree Seed Project hasplaced particular importance on the capture of intra-specific geneticdiversity for native trees and shrubs.

It has made seed collectionsfrom over 6000 trees across 75 species from across the UK. Theproject provides a useful case study for common challenges to capturegenetic diversity in collections, whether for long-term conservationor more immediate use.

Population geneticists have been involvedwith the project throughout its lifetime from inception toevaluation, with guidance provided via an expert advisory group andcommissioned genetic studies. Genetic approaches were incorporatedinto development of the seed sampling strategy which, in the absenceof detailed knowledge of population genetics, uses biogeographiczones as a proxy for genetic diversity and adaptation.

The outcomesof this sampling strategy were evaluated using a modelling approachusing simulations and geographic distribution data for the speciesFraxinus excelsior.

The model estimates that UKNTSP ash collectionshave captured >90% of all alleles present in Britain.

Similarresults have been found from a laboratory study on UKNTSP collectionsof yew Taxus baccata.

The UKNTSP has shared data with projectsworking to identify Gene Conservation Units and Registered SeedStands and collections are available to researchers, including those working on tree improvement or to understand variations in traits over geographic areas.

As a result the UKNTSP has been a key catalystfor development of the first Strategy for UK Forest Genetic Resources.