Special Issue "Genetic Variation and Adaptation of Forest Trees to Environmental Changes"

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Genetics and Molecular Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2023) | Viewed by 630

Special Issue Editors

Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Santa Cruz (UESC), Ilhéus, BA, Brazil
Interests: molecular genetics, conservation of biodiversity and plant improvement, genetic diversity, plant breeding
Training Center in Agroforestry Sciences (CFCAf) of the Federal University of Southern Bahia (UFSB), Itabuna, BA, Brazil
Interests: forest genetic improvement, quantitative genetics, quantitative genomics, statistics, mixed models, grafting of forest species, silviculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Background: Forests are essential in providing many ecosystem services and timber and non-timber products for human use; they guarantee a habitat for the conservation of biodiversity. In this way, many studies have been carried out to understand forests from multiple areas of knowledge.

Aim and scope: This Special Issue aims to disseminate knowledge about the genetic variation and adaptation of forest species to the environment in the context of ancient, historical, and contemporary changes in climate, soil, nutrition, and water.

History: Genetic studies are based on multiple methodological strategies, ranging from the analysis of endogenous plants (physiology, molecular polymorphism, and genomics) to external phenotypic evaluations (morphology, growth, development, and phenology). All of these aspects reveal the influence of the environment, either by natural phenomena from ancient times or by recent human actions, actions which cause accelerated environmental and climate changes. We expect that the greater the genetic variability in a tree population in the forest, the greater the chances of its adaptation to changes in the climate and environment. Thus, different studies have sought to understand the effects of these changes on the diversity and genetic structure of different forest species and their adaptation to the environment.

Cutting-edge research: In the current context of accelerated environmental changes, genetic studies help conservation strategies for tree species and their sustainable use. Currently, the use of multiple research strategies has accelerated research on tree species. Thus, both classical (molecular markers, phenology, biostatistics, etc.) and recent methodologies (phenomics, genomics, artificial intelligence, etc.) are becoming combined. These different research strategies integrate multiple areas of knowledge (bioinformatics, ecology, forest engineering, physiology, genetics, etc.) to better understand the variability and adaptation of trees.

The kind of papers we are soliciting: We are looking to receive research papers and systematic or integrative reviews. The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  1. The diversity and genetic structure of a species of tree: case studies.
  2. Agroforestry systems and the conservation of species and habitats.
  3. The methods and strategies for assessing tree variation and adaptation.
  4. The variation and adaptation of tree species in the context of environmental changes.
  5. Timber and non-timber products as allies of genetic conservation.
  6. The training of researchers in the area of genetics and evolution of tree species.

Prof. Dr. Ronan Xavier Corrêa
Prof. Dr. Andrei Caíque Pires Nunes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agroforest systems
  • climate, soil, and water changes
  • conservation genetics
  • genetic diversity
  • native trees
  • non-native trees
  • evolution
  • genomics
  • ecology
  • sustainable developing goals

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Comparative Chloroplast Genomics Reveals a Unique Gene Inversion in Two Cordia Trees (Cordiaceae)
Forests 2023, 14(9), 1778; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091778 - 31 Aug 2023
Viewed by 334
Abstract
Cordiaceae is a family comprising more than 400 species in the order Boraginales. The classification of this family has undergone changes over time, transitioning between family and subfamily status. In the present study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of Cordia monoica and Cordia [...] Read more.
Cordiaceae is a family comprising more than 400 species in the order Boraginales. The classification of this family has undergone changes over time, transitioning between family and subfamily status. In the present study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of Cordia monoica and Cordia sinensis were sequenced, and their cp genomes were then characterized, analyzed, and compared to those of closely related taxa. The lengths of the cp genomes of C. monoica and C. sinensis were 151,813 bp and 152,050 bp, respectively. Both genomes consisted of 114 genes, divided into 4 ribosomal RNA genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and 80 protein-coding genes. We observed a unique gene inversion in the trnM-rbcL region of both Cordia species. The long repeats analysis revealed that both species’ chloroplast genomes contained forward and palindromic repeats. The simple sequence repeats (SSRs) analysis detected 155 microsatellites in each genome, with the majority being mononucleotide repeats (A/T). Phylogenetic analysis based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses confirmed two major clades in the order Boraginales: clade I comprised Boraginaceae, while clade II included Cordiaceae, Ehretiaceae, and Heliotropiaceae. This study expands our knowledge of the evolutionary relationships across the order Boraginales and offers useful genetic resources. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop