Seoul National University Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding Lab서울대학교 산림유전육종학실

This course teaches the theories and the experimental results of population genetics and quantitative genetics. Students will learn how populations genetically change due to the evolutionary forces such as mutation, selection, migration, and genetic drift. Hardy-Weinberg’ Law, the genetic changes in the small populations, and the effective population size, the nature of continuous variation and quantitative traits, the inheritance of quantitative traits, genetic value and breeding value, genetic variance, phenotypic variance, heritability, the principles of selective breeding, genetic responses to selection, genetic gain, correlated responses, the consequences of inbreeding and cross breeding are the important topics. Students also will learn how to apply the theories and the experimental results to planning a breeding program and establishing of a conservation strategy.

The aim of this subject is to understand and discuss the recent progress and issue of forest biotechnology based on the genetics, function and metabolite of woody plants. Compared to crops and animals, forest trees have big body, long life-cycle and huge genome size, and show allogamouse mating system (out-crossing). The students understand the principle and method of forest biotechnology and also study on mass-propagation techniques of genetically improved reproductive materials. Futhermore exploration and application of functional genes are taught to integrate biotechnology into tree breeding programs for increasing forest productivity.

The students will read research papers reports related to the important topics and issues in tree breeding and discuss about them in groups. The important topics and issues are the processes of flower development and fertilization of various tree species, the selection and mating for a progeny test, the estimation of genetic parameters such as heritability, GCA & SCA and genetic gain, the seed collection and design for establishing a provenance test, the methods of seed orchard establishment including grafting, design and layout, mating patterns, selfing rate and pollen contamination, successful cases of tree breeding abroad countries. Also, the short- and long-term plans for tree breeding will be discussed in the class.

This course targets plants with economic value among functional plants that grow naturally in the forests, rivers, and beaches of the Korean Peninsula, and learns about the ecology, genetics, breeding, cultivation, functionality, and industrialization of these plants. Students will learn the economic value, pharmacological efficacy, and value of industrialization of agricultural and forestry functional plants, such as edible and medicinal plants. In addition, students learn about the identification and classification of each plant, genetics and breed improvement, functional analysis and material extraction. Based on the contents learned during the lecture in group activities, presentations are made on how to use resources for food and medicine. Through this, basic knowledge about the importance of the environment and functional plants for agriculture and forestry and potential utilization as useful resources are presented. Given that the 5 majors are converged into the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Bioresources, two professors from forest tree breeding and crop life sciences, who have different subjects and approaches for each major field, will jointly participate in the class through collaborative team teaching. Without distinguishing between the forest and the crop sectors, we intend to conduct classes that create synergy between the two fields by overcoming the differences in academic perspectives and approaches and utilizing the strengths of the two fields.