A gene conservation plan for loblolly pine

One of the objectives of gene conservation is to ensure that functionally useful alleles will be available in the future and can be captured in breeding programs within useful genotypic sets. This requires that allelic variation be conserved in adaptationally significant traits such as those that have already been observed to exist in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). By developing multiple populations for an array of possible economic and ecological demands, variation can be managed both within and between populations and a broader range of future conditions can be accommodated in a breeding program than what is possible in any single population. Selection for diverse behaviours can increase the probability that unique alleles will be saved in at least one population, and selecting around a dozen populations of size 40 each would maintain high levels of variation within and between populations. In the case of loblolly pine, the industrial breeding programs can form a reasonably diverse core set of populations as a conservation program on which some additional populations may be added to ensure a broad initial genetic sampling. Such a core can also serve as an evolutionary program of adaptive management in which industries can take a rightful lead in conservation.