Current Status and Future Prospects of Wood and Tree Biotechnology

As for various research works on agronomic trait improvements of major crop plants, biotechnology is also useful for wood and tree improvements such as controlling the chemical composition of wood components and the selection of elite trees. Significant recent progress in biotechnology, including molecular biology, molecular genetics, and metabolic engineering, facilitated the identification of genes contributing to wood formation and tree growth regulation. Here the current status of basic research in wood and tree biotechnology will be reviewed briefly and future prospects will be discussed. 主要な農作物における形質改善の場合と同様に，バイオテクノロジーは木材成分の改変や精鋭