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Research article2009Peer reviewedOpen access

Cellulose content as a selection trait in breeding for kraft pulp yield in Eucalyptus urophylla

Kien, Nguyen D.; Quang, Tran H.; Jansson, Gunnar; Harwood, Chris; Clapham, David; von Arnold, Sara

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using cellulose content, measured by the diglyme-HCl method, as a selection trait in breeding programs for kraft pulp yield in Eucalyptus urophylla.A total of 275 trees from sixty-two families were sampled from a thinned progeny trial of E. urophylla in northern Vietnam to evaluate cellulose content from breast-height increment cores. Among those, twenty unrelated trees were felled to evaluate cellulose content and pulp yield from breast-height disk samples.The regression of pulp yield of disk samples on cellulose content was strong either from disks (R(2) = 0.83) or increment cores (R(2) = 0.69). There was no significant difference in cellulose content between the provenances. The narrow-sense within-provenance heritability of cellulose content was 0.50 and the coefficient of additive genetic variation was 3.9%. Genetic correlations between cellulose content and growth (0.28-0.45) or wood basic density (-0.02) were not significantly different from zero.Breast-height increment core cellulose content measured by diglyme-HCl method is under strong genetic control and can be used to rank trees for pulp yield in E. urophylla plantations. Selection for increased cellulose content would have only minor effects on growth and wood basic density.

Keywords

cellulose content; Eucalyptus urophylla; genetic correlation; heritability; pulp yield

Published in

Annals of Forest Science
2009, volume: 66, number: 7, article number: 711

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/forest/2009064

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/28092