Tracking down the effects of a rare mutant gene in loblolly pine - A first report
Yu Q., Capanema E., Batista VB., Josserand S., Johnson G., Nelson CD., McKeand SE., MacKay JJ., Kadla JF., Li B., Jameel H., Chang HM., Mullin TJ.
The effect of partially CAD-deficient loblolly pine (cad-nl heterozygotes) on wood density and growth was studied in a 10-year-old genotype X nutrition field experiment in Scotland County, North Carolina. Segregation analysis indicted that the cad-nl locus itself might represent a gene that governs wood density, especially the proportion of latewood in pine. We found that cad-nl heterozygotes had a significantly higher wood density compared to CAD wild-type trees. Fertilization effect was highly significant for both growth and wood density traits. CAD genotype-fertilizer interactions were not significant for any of the measurement traits.