Tissue Culture Research at the CFS: Its History, Current Status and Potential Benefits

Modern forest management relies on extensive breeding and reforestation programs to support the sustainability of forest productivity and conservation of natural forests. Plantation forestry, with its increased forest productivity and improved wood quality, is likely to become an important source of wood products in the future. Vegetative propagation of superior coniferous forest trees through biotechnology (tissue culture) has the potential to deliver a stable supply of superior seedlings for forest plantations. The objective of this report is to present an overview of the tissue culture research that has been carried out in Canadian Forest Service (CFS) centres over several decades and to outline the important impact this research has had worldwide. In addition, it is our intent to indicate in which direction this research, in our opinion, ought to go to further serve the industrial and scientific communities. This is not a complete review of all past research activities at the CFS. Only a general outline of major achievements will be presented and only a small part of the published literature will be discussed. Genetic engineering, which is generally carried out with tissues obtained in tissue culture, is largely outside the scope of this report and will not be discussed in detail.