End of Project ReportTeagasc acknowledges with gratitude the support of the European Commission, ECLAIR, and the Human Capital and Mobility Programme in
the financing of this research project.Oak and wild cherry (Prunus avium) are important broadleaved species. We have identified
superior trees and conserved them by grafting. Methods for the large scale propagation of selected
trees was evaluated using the technology of micropropagation. For oak we could establish shoot
cultures from mature oaks but their propagation rate was too low and difficult for practical
application. With wild cherry micropropagation is a feasible option for large scale production of
selected material.
Genetic fingerprinting technology was developed and applied to oaks. We showed that all material
propagated vegetatively from oak was genetically similar to the original donor tree. Furthermore we
used genetic fingerprinting to analyse a unique stand of elite oaks in Co. Westmeath and determined
that the selected trees were not closely related to each other. The analysis of genetic fingerprints of
16 elite oaks also showed that five of them had an unusual pattern of DNA and one tree was identified as a rare triploid tree.European Unio
