Not Just Koala Chow: Genetic Secrets of Eucalyptus Tree Revealed

by Will Dunham (Reuters) Eucalyptus leaves are the main food supply for Australia's koalas, but there is a lot more to the tree than that.
It is native to Australia but has become the world's most widely planted hardwood tree. The eucalyptus tree is a source of timber, fuel, cellulose and medicinal and industrial oils, and scientists are looking to maximize its potential in biofuels.
An international team of researchers this week unveiled the genetic blueprint of the tree species Eucalyptus grandis and identified among its 36,000-plus genes the ones involved in critical biological processes controlling tree growth and wood formation, flowering and other qualities.
"The main interest is understanding how these trees grow so fast and how they are able to produce such large amounts of cellulose," scientist Zander Myburg of the University of Pretoria's Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
"There's an interest in cellulose in the context of breaking the cellulose down into sugars, which can be fermented into biofuels. But really these trees are widely used industrially for cellulose-related products and timber, pulp and paper production." READ MORE