Barbaroux, C\ue9cile

Bastien, Catherine

Brignolas, Franck

Ceulemans, Reinhart

Dillen, Sophie

Dreyer, Erwin

Marron, Nicolas

Monclus, Romain

Villar, Marc

Abstract: Introduction Because of its vigorous growth, poplar can play an important role for sustainable production of woody biomass to cover renewable energy needs. Hence, the selection of suitable genotypes has to be based on relevant traits, among which intrinsic water use efficiency (W i, estimated through leaf carbon isotope discrimination, \u394) may be a key trait. Besides a large genetic variation in \u394 among the frequently planted poplar hybrids, the use of \u394 in deployment or breeding programmes requires insights in the robustness of the genotype ranking for \u394 across environments and years. Methods Two F1 full-sib families of poplar (Populus deltoides 
7 Populus nigra and Populus deltoides 
7 Populus trichocarpa) were grown at two sites in Europe, i.e. northern Italy and central France. For each family, leaf samples from 31 F1 genotypes collected during different field studies were used (1) to assess the effect of genotype, site and year on \u394 in leaves, as well as their mutual interactions, and (2) to elucidate the relationships between \u394, leaf morphology and tree dimensions. Results Under the well-watered conditions of our study, a low to moderate genetic variability was observed in the two poplar families. Within-family broad-sense heritability values ranged from 0 to 0.49. The ranking of genotypes for \u394 was more stable between years than between sites. Conclusions The study confirmed the occurrence of some degree of genetic variability of \u394 in the studied poplar families and the possibility to identify genotypes with low, stable \u394 values across years. However, the significant genotype-by-site interactions in our study suggest that selection for larger water use efficiency or lower \u394 in these families has to consider specific responses in different environments

Institutional Repository Universiteit Antwerpen

Is the ranking of poplar genotypes for leaf carbon isotope discrimination stable across sites and years in two different full-sib families?

Is the ranking of poplar genotypes for leaf carbon isotope discrimination stable across sites and years in two different full-sib families?

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Institutional Repository Universiteit Antwerpen