Carbon in a form of CO2 enters leaf through stomata that consist of two guard cells. In leaves, sugars, which are assimilated through photosynthesis from CO2, are transported via phloem (pink) to sink tissues such as cambium (yellow). Cambium, in turn, produces phloem and xylem (wood), latter of which is made of cellulose, a long-term storage for carbon. Conductive type of xylem (blue) transports water from roots to leaves, where stomatal opening and density must be balanced to maximize CO2 intake and minimize water evaporation.
TreeBio CoE attempts to understand all this as a whole. In Work Package (WP) 1-3 we focus on information transfer from the model plant Arabidopsis (A.th.) to birch, whereas in WP4 we reverse the direction starting with a focus on the Betula model and its natural genetic variation. WPs are further divided into specific Tasks.
Task1. Guard cell CO2 signaling network (Cezary Waszczak)
Task 2. Regulation of stomatal development (Anne Vaten)
Task 3. Evaluation of the identified stomatal components in tree carbon gain (Jaakko Kangasjärvi)
Task 4. Morphogenesis of conductive tissues (Ykä Helariutta)
Task 5. Functionality of conductive tissues (Maija Sierla)
Task 6. Evaluation of the novel vascular functions in tree context (Teemu Hölttä)
Task 7. Comparative single cell transcriptome of cambia across species (Ari Pekka Mähönen)
Task 8. Cambial factors regulating sink strength (Melis Kucukoglu Topcu)
Task 9. Source-sink interaction in tree system (Teemu Hölttä)
Task 10. Advanced phenotyping related to carbon sequestration strategies in birch (Alexey Shapiguzov)
Task 11. Genetic architecture and phenotype-genotype map of carbon sink traits in natural populations (Tanja Pyhäjärvi)
Task 12. From mapping to genes and gene networks: carbon sink effect in a genomic landscape (Jarkko Salojärvi)
Task 13. Towards breeding of enhanced carbon sink effect in forest trees (Kaisa Nieminen)