These new results clarify the evolutionary history of oaks,
from the deep roots of their diversification to the more recent evolution of
European white oaks, as well as the identification of key genes involved in
adaptation to certain environments or in resistance to pathogens.
As keystones of forest ecosystems, trees - and oaks in
particular - are also considered as model organisms for identifying the
ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for the diversification and
adaptation of plants to their environment.
Of the ten or so articles published in the journal New
Physiologist, seven are co-authored by INRAE researchers, four of which are the
result of cooperation between the BIOGECO research unit based in New
Aquitaine and the unit's long-standing partners: the Morton Arboretum in
Chicago and the Genoscope at the François Jacob Institute of Biology (CEA).
Through these various articles and thanks to the data
generated by the Genoscope, the researchers have highlighted several points :
By synthesizing the knowledge accumulated on the ancient and
recent evolution of oaks, they underline the evolutionary mechanisms that
allowed oaks to colonize the Northern Hemisphere (
Kremer and Hipp, 2020);
In light of recent discoveries obtained through genomics,
they summarize in an opinion article the traditional symbolism associated with
oaks such as longevity, cohesion and robustness (
Leroy et al. 2020a); they
propose an oak conservation strategy to promote the adaptation of these sessile
and long-lived organisms to global changes (
Cannon and Petit, 2020).
Finally, research articles illustrate the publication of
these synthetic and prospective works on the oak genome sequence.
Find all these articles in the latest issue of the journal
New Phytologist.
These results were the subject of a press release (in french).