Functional genomics of wood degradation and biosynthesis

Sammanfattning: Forest biotechnology is a fast emerging field of research. The application of biotechnological tools will enhance the quality of the forest products. The resultant value added and environmentally sustainable products are an absolute necessity in the future. The study of wood biosynthesis and degradation will result in enormous knowledge resources, which can be used for exploiting wood properties. This thesis addresses questions representing both wood degradation and biosynthesis.The wood degrading fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium is expression profiled with the microarray technology. The objective is to understand the expression pattern of the extracellular carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) secreted by the organism. The data obtained increases our understanding of gene expression upon growth on cellulose.Wood biosynthesis is studied with the model wood forming tree species, Populus. The plentiful data resources from the expression profiling during wood formation in Populus are used as the platform of this work. One of the wood specific genes, PttMAP20, previously with an unknown function is studied in this thesis. The immunolocalisation of PttMAP20 with specific antibodies is demonstrated. The putative microtubule-targeting domain of the protein is demonstrated microscopically and by using a biochemical binding assay.