Checking the geographical origin of oak wood: molecular and statistical tools

Abstract

New methods for better identification of timber geographical origin would constitute an important technical element in the forest industry, for phytosanitary certification procedures or in the chain of custody developed for the certification of timber from sustainably managed forests. In the case of the European white oaks, a detailed reference map of chloroplast (cp) DNA variation across the range exists, and we propose here to use the strong geographical structure, characterized by a differentiation of western vs. eastern populations, for the purpose of oak wood traceability. We first developed cpDNA markers permitting the characterization of haplotype on degraded DNA obtained from wood samples. The techniques were subsequently validated by confirming the full correspondence between genotypes obtained from living tissues (buds) and from wood collected from the same individual oak. Finally, a statistical procedure was used to test if the haplotype composition of a lot of wood samples is consistent with its presumed geographical origin. Clearly, the technique cannot permit the unambiguous identification of wood products of unknown origin but can be used to check the conformity of genetic composition of wood samples with the region of alleged origin. This could lead to major applications not only in the forest industry but also in archaeology or in palaeobotany.

An Effective Wood DNA Extraction Protocol for Three Economic Important Timber Species of India

“…Genotypes the tracing of timber origin, and species can be identified based on an investigation of wood if suitable DNA content and high amount of pure DNA is available [14]. The aims for this study were to optimize the total genomic DNA extraction protocol by means of the standardized the modified CTAB wood (heartwood and sapwood) DNA extraction protocol [15] [16] and the comparison between the modified CTAB protocol, CTAB protocol and Plant DNA extraction kits (Nucleopore) protocols. This modified protocol made the intact wood DNA isolation that facilitates the important forensic timber species effort.…”

Analysis of DNA profiles of ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) to provide evidence of illegal logging

“…Mey), white ash (Fraxinus chinensis) and the Dipterocarpaceae (Rachmayanti et al 2009;Tang et al 2011). Chloroplast DNA was also applied to trace the geographical origin of oak timber in France, and one tropical timber in Peninsular Malaysia (Deguilloux et al 2003;Tnah et al 2009). Generally, the higher rate of evolution in nuclear microsatellites versus chloroplast microsatellites allows conclusions to be drawn on the genetic identity of plant material based solely on nuclear markers.…”

“…To prevent illegally harvested timber and products derived from such timber appearing on the market, genetic tools based on DNA markers have been developed (Asif and Cannon 2005;Deguilloux et al 2002Deguilloux et al , 2003Tnah et al 2012). These DNA markers are additional tools to be used alongside classical methods such as mechanoscopy and dendrochronology, which are often applied to investigate different forms of crime in forests (Yaman and Akkemik 2009); especially, when mechanoscopy or dendrochronology fails to provide sufficient evidence in investigations, i.e.…”

Development of a diagnostic DNA marker for the geographic origin of Shorea leprosula

“…It has been reported that the best results were obtained from sapwood because quantity and quality of DNA extracted from sapwood are higher than from heartwood ( Deguilloux et al 2002( Deguilloux et al , 2003. However, dipterocarp DNA can be contaminated by PCR-inhibitory substances in particular in the outer sapwood reducing the chance of successful amplification (Rachmayanti et al 2009).…”