Prof Dave Drew attends workshop contributing to new Grandis project

Post authored by Prof Dave Drew

Prof Dave Drew attended a workshop hosted by Prof Zander Myburg, University of Pretoria, in kwaMbonambi on 28th February.

The meeting was to bring together stakeholders and current/potential future participants in a new project which Prof Myburg is leading to undertake “…large-scale genome sequencing to decipher woody biomass production and environmental interactions of eucalypt trees”.

Participants in the workshop visited two of the replicated field sites in the Zululand region at which a wide range of families of E. grandis have been planted. The response of these different families at the site was strikingly variable, in terms of growth, as well as things like pest and disease resistance. A wide variety of other growth, wood property and physiological variables are and will be measured.

Prof Drew hopes to be able to bring one or more students into the project to understand growth responses and other physiological differences, to link to the genotypic variation which will be extensively undertaken.