STRATEGIES FOR IDENTIFYING GENES THAT ARE QTLS IN FOREST TREES

¹ Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-7501 USA

² College of Forest Resources, Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA

We will explore means for identifying genes that are the sources of QTLs in forest trees. Our focus will be on how to isolate genes given only QTL map information, and how to verify that a QTL has been identified in cases of statistical associations using candidate genes. We emphasize the opportunities for transformation as a tool for gene discovery and verification, and the requirements of tree systems for map-based gene discovery to be feasible.