No abstract

-Wood is one of our most important natural resources and has been exploited for many hundreds of years as fuel, building material and a source of paper. Its composition is variable among and within species. The ability to monitor the intra-specific variability is a prerequisite to improve wood and end-products properties. This paper describes a study of the genetic control of a large set of wood properties, including growth, timber quality traits, wood chemical composition, kraft pulp production parameters and pulp properties, in a 12 × 12 half diallel of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.). While relatively high (h ns 2 > 0.3) narrow-sense heritabilities were observed for density heterogeneity, lignin content, alpha-cellulose content and coarseness, no significant genetic effect was detected for hemi cellulose, water extractives, kraft pulp production parameters and pylodin. Slightly lower heritabilities (0.15 < h ns 2 < 0.3) were also obtained for wood density and fibre properties (length, width, curl, zero span). As a consequence and considering the phenotypic coefficient of variation obtained for these traits, improvement by selection of trees with outstanding wood quality is feasible. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that wood quality breeding can not be done without taking into account growth, and the only way to manage this constraint (negative correlation between growth and density) will be the constitution of elite "wood quality" populations in a already growth improved genetic population.wood quality / heritability / genetic correlation / tree breeding / Pinus pinaster Ait.Résumé -Déterminisme génétique des propriétés du bois impliquées dans la production papetière et la qualité du bois d'oeuvre chez le Pin maritime (Pinus pinaster Ait.). Le bois, une des ressources naturelles les plus importantes, est exploité depuis des centaines d'années comme combustible, matériau de construction et source de papier. Sa composition est très variable, non seulement entre espèces mais aussi au niveau intra spécifique. La compréhension de cette variabilité intra spécifique est un pré-requis de l'amélioration des propriétés des produits à base de bois. L'objectif de l'étude présentée ici est la compréhension du déterminisme génétique de plusieurs caractères impliqués dans la composition chimique et les propriétés du bois (caractéristiques physiques, paramètres de production industrielle et propriétés de la pâte) grâce à l'étude d'un demi diallèle 12 × 12. Bien que des héritabilités au sens strict relativement élevées (h ns 2 > 0,3) aient été obtenues pour l'hétérogénéité de la densité, les contenus en lignine et en alpha-cellulose et la masse linéique, aucun effet génétique significatif n'a été mis en évidence pour le contenu en hémi-cellulose, les extractibles, les paramètres de production de pâtes kraft, et la densité estimée grâce au pilodyn. Des héritabilités plus faibles (0,15 < h ns 2 < 0,3) ont quant à elles été obtenues pour la densité du bois et les propriétés des fibres (longueur, largeur, courbure, ri...

A three-generation outbred pedigree of 186 individuals was used to identify the genomic regions involved in the variability of chemical and physical wood properties of Pinus pinaster. A total of 54 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) was detected, with an average of 2.4 QTLs per trait. Clusters of wood properties QTLs were found at several points in the genome, suggesting the existence of pleiotropic effects of a limited number of genes. The colocalizations observed in this study are in accordance with the genetic correlations previously reported in the literature. In addition, in an attempt to identify the genes underlying the QTLs, nine wood quality candidate genes involved in cell wall structure were localized on the genetic map. Only one of them, Korrigan, a gene encoding for a β 1-4 endo-glucanase known in Arabidopis thaliana to be involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis, co-localized with a wood quality QTL cluster involved in hemicellulose content and fibre characteristics. This finding is in accordance with results previously reported for this gene regarding its expression variability (transcriptome and proteome levels) and patterns of molecular evolution. The pertinence of this result will be tested in more rigorous designs in order to identify early selection predictors for wood quality.

Both spectral noise and reference method noise affect the accuracy and the precision NIR predicted values. The reference noise is often neglected, and the few reports dealing with it only consider random noise artificially added to the original sound reference data. A calibration for lignin content of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) wood meal was developed, but due to low precision and accuracy in the reference data set, NIR partial least-squares regression (PLSR) yielded a slope of 0.51 and an intercept at 14% Klason lignin. We demonstrate with an independent data set for external validation, obtained with higher precision and accuracy, that the NIR PLSR model based on the noisy reference data led to better results. The slope of the correlation between predicted and reference values was 0.89 and the intercept was 3.9. Thus, the model performed much better than expected from the cross-validation results. The predictability can be explained by the facts that the loadings of the first principal component (PC) of the calibration and test samples are very similar and dominated by lignin-related bands, and that most of the variation in the test set can be explained by the first PC. This only explains why the Klason lignin content could be predicted with the model without giving many spectral outliers, but not the good result of the external validation. We show that the latter can be explained by the inverse calibration used for PLSR and that predicted values can be more accurate and precise than the reference values used for calibration.

The first and the second generation of improved maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) have produced gains of up to 30% in stem volume, a reduction of final harvesting age by 10 years and a considerable improvement of stem straightness. The third generation will include wood quality traits for different end-uses, including pulp and fibre properties. To facilitate this goal, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to estimate chemical composition with regard to lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses, and extractive content, and lignin quality with regard to 4-hydroxy-phenylpropane/guaiacylpropane ratio. A total of 960 samples were investigated which were collected from a large number of trees (belonging to 80 families obtained by crossing 18 mothers and 20 fathers; there are 12 trees per family). Good calibration data was obtained between NIRS and wet chemistry methods (R2 values higher than 0.9 and good precision of prediction). To complete the NIRS work, kraft cookings in small scale, fibre morphology and microdensitometry investigations were also conducted. Genetic calculations indicated that for a 1% rate of selection on mothers and fathers, genetically induced changes are possible with lignin content (−3.8%), cellulose content (+1.3%), pulp yield (+1.8%), fibre length in pulps (+0.17 mm) and wood density (+50 kg m−3).

-The study aims to identify the feasibility and the relevance of a genetic selection for enhancing the pulping potential of the Douglas fir wood. At first, wood predictors for TMP potential are identified through the refining of thirty trees 17-year-old, using a specific procedure on a 12" Andritz refiner. The variations of TMP physical properties are linked with those of anatomical parameters, but also with within ring density related traits. The brightness of the unbleached TMP is negatively correlated with the red chromatic component of wood. Lignin, holocellulose and extractives content on one hand, Kraft fibre morphology on the other hand are considered to evaluate roughly the wood potential for the Kraft process. Then 15 clones out of 200 are non destructively selected within a 24-year-old German test to evaluate the range of the genetic variation of the papermaking potential. Chemical analyses give evidence of large variations of the chemical composition ratio between clones (holocellulose/lignin ratio). The clone discrimination of the fibre length is weak, but significant differences of fibre coarseness are observed as a consequence of the large variability of the latewood density levels. The industrial selection gain for pulping is discussed on the basis of TMP pilot plant tests which show large differences of physical and optical TMP properties between average wood assortments of each clone. This leads to practical recommendations for breeders considering the expectations of both the pulping and the wood industry.wood quality / TMP / Kraft pulp / genetic selection / Pseudotsuga menziesii Résumé -Sélection génétique du Douglas (Pseudotsuga menziesii) en Europe pour des usages papetiers. L'étude vise à connaître la faisabilité et la pertinence d'une sélection génétique pour améliorer le potentiel papetier du bois de Douglas. Dans un premier temps sont identifiés des indicateurs de qualité du bois pour la pâte TMP au travers du défibrage de 30 arbres âgés de 17 ans sur un pilote Andritz 12". Les variations de propriétés physiques des pâtes TMP sont liées à celles de paramètres anatomiques, mais aussi à des variations de densité intra-cerne. La blancheur des pâtes écrues est négativement corrélée à la composante chromatique rouge du bois. Les taux de lignine, holocellulose et taux d'extraits d'une part, les caractéristiques morphologiques des fibres d'autre part, sont mesurés pour évaluer sommairement le potentiel du bois dans le procédé Kraft. Dans un second temps, 15 clones sont sélectionnés parmi 200 de façon non destructive au sein d'un test clonal allemand âgé de 24 ans, afin d'évaluer l'ampleur de la variation génétique du potentiel papetier. Les analyses chimiques mettent en évidence de forts contrastes entre clones du point de vue de la composition chimique (rapport holocellulose/lignine). La différenciation des clones est faible pour la longueur des fibres, à la différence de la masse linéique des fibres, conséquence d'une forte variation de la densité du bois d'été entre clones. Dans une...

No abstract

No abstract