Most biotechnology research is fundamental: the research ers simply seek new genes and new knowledge. What sets the Tree Genetic Engineering Research Cooperative (TGERC) apart is that it selects genes in consultation with growers to address their needs. In most cases, this means they start with genes known to control specific desirable traits in agricultural plants and apply them in forestry. Examples are genes to resist herbicides or insects that were proven in maize and soybeans that TGERC researchers are now testing in trees.

According to Director Steve Strauss (Forest Science), the cooperative's main objective is to start getting genetically engineered trees out into the real world. The work is extension-like in that TGERC staff help industry field-test products on their own lands. Staff create genetically engineered trees in the laboratory and then conduct field trials on industrial lands. The tests are necessary because sometimes a gene mechanism that works in one kind of plant fails in another. For example, graduate student Rozi Mohamed found that a disease resistance gene that was effective in tobacco was no help to poplar against diseases it faces in the Pacific Northwest.

All of the cooperative's work so far has been with poplars. Poplars were chosen because they are a burgeoning new crop in the region and especially amenable to genetic engineering. When the TGERC started in 1994, the cooperative's first task was to establish that gene insertion was even possible. Now the cooperative can do it with just about any kind of poplar and other work has taken precedence. Several projects seek to improve trees' resistance to insects, herbicides, and disease.

The new traits controlled by the genes are expected not only to reduce pest control costs, but also to improve poplar's environmental attributes. Understanding how the new genes will affect plantation sustainability is the subject of new, multidisciplinary research that involves economics, soils, and toxicology researchers at OSU.

The biggest current project, however, is developing ways to control the flowering of trees. Control is necessary both to make trees flower when breeders want them to and to keep them from flowering any other time. All tree breeders have an interest in controlling flowering so that they can cross desired varieties of trees without waiting the years it takes for trees to become sexually mature. Conversely, breeders do not want trees in production plantations to flower. In this way, newly introduced genes, or even conventionally bred hybrids, are prevented from having undesirable impacts on other lands as they spread through pollen and seed. Development of sexually sterile trees would relieve industry and farmers of the need to consider how each new gene might affect wild populations in each environment where the trees are planted. Because it is easy to produce poplars vegetatively, sexually sterile trees present no problems for practical use. And by freeing resources normally used for reproduction, the sterile trees may continue rapid growth during the normal flowering phaseÑwhen the growth of trees usually slows down.

As an incentive for industry to invest in TGERC research, OSU is patenting four new flowering-related genes from poplars that will be useful for genetic engineering of sterile trees. Industry members of the cooperative help pay for the patent process separately from their TGERC membership; in return they will pay very inexpensive licensing fees when the patents are approved. Those members who did not help support the patent process will still receive a reduced rate, but will pay about twice as much as the members who share in patent costs. Licenses are also available to nonmembers at higher rates. Having a license to use a patented gene gives industry confidence that it can use a new gene commercially at an affordable price.

However, because biotechnology is a young field, a number of patents are in effect that cover most of the methods and genes needed to produce a commercially useful transgenic tree. Forest industries are therefore working with biotechnology companies, such as TGERC member Monsanto, to gain access to the full suite of tools needed. Biotechnology companies like Monsanto see the cooperative as a place for their technology to be tested and developed into useful, credibly tested products for forest industries.

Usually, only the biggest companies do their own genetic engineering research, and then only on the biggest crops; very few forest or agricultural companies can afford their own biotechnology research laboratories. The cooperative can help fill the traditional land-grant university niche of doing research to help the smaller companies and farmers to gain access to new technology, such as developing better wheat for Northwest conditions or finding ways to protect fruit crops from disease. Perhaps even more important, though, is the fact that the collaboration of industries, government agencies, and the university represented in the TGERC helps to assure the public that this new technology is developed wisely and tested thoroughly.