EUCAGEN

Eucalyptus - a global fibre crop

Eucalyptii tree species and hybrids have over the past five decades become the most widely planted hardwoods in the world. Eucalypts are extensively planted in the tropics and subtropics, mostly as exotics (they are endemic to Australia and some islands to the north of the continent). These fast-growing plantations are today supporting multi-billion dollar industries based on eucalypt fibre (pulp, paper, cellulose, etc) and hardwood products (poles, construction, furniture, etc). Eucalypt species and hybrids have also been identified as potential biomass crops and feedstocks for the production of cellulosic biofuels. The relatively short rotation and extensive use of interspecific hybridization and clonal propagation offers tremendous opportunities for the application of biotechnology in almost all aspects of eucalypt tree improvement.

Several private consortia have invested in the development of resources for genomic research to support the development of biotechnology applications for Eucalyptus tree improvement. This investment has generally not been matched by large amounts of public funding, and consequently very limited amounts of Eucalyptus genome data have been available in the public domain. The situation will soon change with two major eucalypt genome sequencing projects ongoing in the USA and in Japan. At KAZUSA DNA Research Institute in Japan, a draft (4-5X) genome sequence is being completed for E. camaldulensis. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) announced in 2007 that it will produce an 8X draft of the E. grandis genome as part of its Community Sequencing Programme. The DOE-JGI E. grandis Genome Project is still ongoing (progress can be tracked here), but a 4.5X draft assembly of the E. grandis genome has been released and the preliminary 8X assembly will soon be made available (EucalyptusDB).

The final 8X sequencing was completed by the end of 2009 and final assembly and annotation is ongoing. The final draft assembly and annotation versions of the E. grandis genome will be released in 2010 via Phytozome.

The International Eucalyptus Genome Network

EUCAGEN is a community of more than 130 eucalypt researchers world-wide. EUCAGEN aims to facilitate the development of genomic resources for Eucalyptus tree species.The community is organized into Working Groups centered around several types of genomics resource development. Interested parties are invited to Join EUCAGEN and indicate their areas of expertise and potential contribution of genomic resources.