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Recent landscape genomics studies in forest trees—what can we believe?

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Abstract

Landscape genomics is potentially a powerful research field for discovery of genes underlying complex patterns of adaptation in forest ecosystems. The general approach is to search for associations between genetic variation in tree populations and environmental variation in the habitats these trees occupy. For example, environmental data from GIS databases can be associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes for large samples of trees sampled from within environmentally heterogeneous landscapes. In this opinion paper, we seek to assess the commonality of recent landscape genomics studies in forest trees. When we compare results across different species, we find very few examples of the same genes being detected that associate to similar environmental variables. We also find the absence of commonality when we compare three studies in Norway spruce with similar experimental design. We thus argue that landscape genomics research in forest trees is in its infancy and currently reported that results should be viewed with caution. Further, improvements in study design and analyses of replicated studies will be needed before this very promising approach can be brought to application for managing forests under changing climate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors thank to Dr. Andrew J. Eckert for helpful discussion and detailed and constructive suggestions. Irina Ćalić was supported by DISPAA doctorate scholarship provided by University of Florence, Italy. A special thanks goes to John D. Liechty for a compressive help on scripting and computational work at UC Davis. Irina Ćalić give thanks to Markus Neteler (GIS Remote sensing group at Foundation of Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy) for providing environmental dataset and Lorenzo Bonosi for sharing of genomic data within project PicPhenomics on Norway spruce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Agri-food Productions and Environmental Science Section of Plant and Soil Science, Piazzale delle Cascine 28, 50144, Florence, Italy

    Irina Ćalić & Filippo Bussotti

  2. IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, 38010, S. Michele all’Adige, Italy

    Irina Ćalić

  3. Department Plant Sciences, University of California, 262C Robbins Hall, Mail Stop 4, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Irina Ćalić, Pedro J. Martínez-García & David B. Neale

Authors
  1. Irina Ćalić
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  2. Filippo Bussotti
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  3. Pedro J. Martínez-García
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  4. David B. Neale
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David B. Neale.

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Communicated by S. C. González-Martínez

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Ćalić, I., Bussotti, F., Martínez-García, P.J. et al. Recent landscape genomics studies in forest trees—what can we believe?. Tree Genetics & Genomes 12, 3 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0960-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0960-0

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