- ISU Forestry Department Receives Transgenic Aspen From Nippon Paper Company of Japan -
Richard B. Hall (Forestry and Interdepartmental Genetics) and Sande McNabb (Plant Pathology and Forestry) have recently received seven new transgenic lines and one control of hybrid aspen (Populus sieboldii x P. grandidentata ) produced by Nippon Paper Company of Japan. The transgenic trees were developed by Nippon to be resistant to crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens . The seven lines are based on three different molecular genetic strategies for combating the disease by interfering with the organism's ability to take over control of growth in infected stem tissue. The other interesting fact about these transgenic lines is that they were produced by transformation with  A. tumefaciens . The disease organism itself was used to bring in the genes conferring resistance.

These trees are the key to a five-year research agreement with Nippon Paper Company to study the long-term stability of the disease resistance and the impacts, if any, of the transformations on tree growth and other non-target traits. A preliminary phase of testing the plants' resistance to Iowa strains of A. tumefaciens has already been carried out in the Nippon laboratories. Under import permit requirements, the trees will spend two years under quarantine. However, we anticipate that we will be able to start our field studies next growing season under isolation rules acceptable to the regulatory agencies.

The ISU/Nippon collaboration was arranged by Weyerhaeuser scientists who knew of the pioneering work with transgenic trees conducted by Bob Thornburg (Biochemistry/Biophysics), Sande McNabb, and others here at ISU. In 1989, this ISU group established the first official field test of transgenic trees in North America and one of the first in the world.

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