Forest trees cover 30% of the earth's land surface, providing renewable fuel, wood, timber, shelter, fruits, leaves, bark, roots, and are source of medicinal products in addition to benefits such as carbon sequestration, water shed protection, and habitat for 1/3 of terrestrial species. However, the genetic analysis and breeding of trees has lagged behind that of crop plants. Therefore, systematic conservation, sustainable improvement and pragmatic utilization of trees are global priorities. This book provides comprehensive and up to date information about tree characterization, biological understanding, and improvement through biotechnological and molecular tools.

Contains the 40 papers presented to the AGM of the UK Tree Biotechnology Group in 1997 covering a broad range of activities in progress such as the establishment of the National Forest, the Farm Woodlands programme, micropropogation techniques, and DNA fingerprinting of trees.

Biotechnology has come to a stage where, by replacing some of the age old practices of breeding, it can produce novel and improved plants and animals that can better serve human beings and their purposes. The techniques of cellular and subcellular engineering, such as gene splicing and recombinant DNA, cloning, hybridomas and monoclonal anti bodies, production of human insulin, protein engineering, industrial fermentation, artificial insemination, cryopreservation and ovum trans fer, plant tissue culture and somatic hybridization, nitrogen fixation, phytomass production for biofuels etc have advanced greatly in the past decade, due to the availability of better equipment and the consolida tion of knowledge. Product orientation has removed biotechnology from the area of pure academic interest to one of utility where the final product is a spur to action. Businesses have started pouring money into projects, which has aided greatly in improving equipment, information exchange, and arousing the interest and imagination of the public. The common goal of science, industry and the public opens wide vistas and great hopes for biotechnology. The business of biotechnology addresses itself to issues of factory farming, technology transfer, joint ventures, international cooperation and to specific topics as well as the produc tion of diagnostic kits. Industry is particularly concerned with the phar maceutical field and microbial biotechnology from which profitable return§ can accrue. Commercial interests have led to better management practices and systematisation.

The American chestnut, whitebark pine, and several species of ash in the eastern United States are just a few of the North American tree species that have been functionally lost or are in jeopardy of being lost due to outbreaks of pathogens and insect pests. New pressures in this century are putting even more trees at risk. Expanded human mobility and global trade are providing pathways for the introduction of nonnative pests for which native tree species may lack resistance. At the same time, climate change is extending the geographic range of both native and nonnative pest species. Biotechnology has the potential to help mitigate threats to North American forests from insects and pathogens through the introduction of pest-resistant traits to forest trees. However, challenges remain: the genetic mechanisms that underlie trees' resistance to pests are poorly understood; the complexity of tree genomes makes incorporating genetic changes a slow and difficult task; and there is a lack of information on the effects of releasing new genotypes into the environment. Forest Health and Biotechnology examines the potential use of biotechnology for mitigating threats to forest tree health and identifies the ecological, economic, and social implications of deploying biotechnology in forests. This report also develops a research agenda to address knowledge gaps about the application of the technology.

Major and exciting changes have taken place recently in various aspects of bio technology and its applications to forestry. Even more exciting is the prospect of major innovations that the entire field of biotechnology holds for plant growth in general. The importance of these developments for the forestry sector is considerable, particu larly since forestry science has not received the kinds of technical and R&D inputs that, say, agriculture has received in the past few decades. Y ct the problems of defor estation as well as stagnation in yields and productivity of existing forests throughout the world are becoming increasingly apparent, with consequences and ecological ef fects that cause growing worldwide concern. Policies for application of existing knowl edge in biotechnology to the field of forestry and priorities for future research and development are, therefore, of considerable value, because it is only through the adop tion of the right priorities and enlightened policies that scientific developments will move along the right direction, leading to improvements in forestry practices through out the world. It was against this backdrop that the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) or ganised a major international workshop on the "Applications of Biotechnology in For estry and Horticulture" at New Delhi in January 1988. The present volume covers the proceedings of this international workshop.

After the 1986 and 1989 volumes, this is the third volume on biotechnology for propagation of trees. Comprising 28 chapters contributed by international experts the book deals with fruit, ornamental, and forest trees, such as Black cherry, Sour cherry, Pomegranate, Loquat, Ficus, Yellow poplar, Horse chestnut, Judas tree, Linden tree, Saskatoons, Taiwan sassafras, Plane-tree, Rattans, Bamboos, Engelmann spruce, White spruce, Larches, Hinoki cypress, Western redcedar, and various types of pines, i.e. Jack, Carribean, Eldarica, Slash, Egg-cone, Maritime, Ponderosa, Eastern white, Loblolly pine. Trees III is an excellent reference book for scientists, educators, and students of forestry, botany, genetics, and horticulture, who are interested in tree biotechnology.