Global Expert investigates mystery plant ailment
Bay of Plenty forestry biotechnology company Horizon2 has gone global in its efforts to find out why some of the mother
plants from one of its elite pine tree breeding programmes are mysteriously failing.
The host plants, which are the result of a sophisticated cloning programme, produce up to 50 cuttings each for sale to
forest owners looking for superior tree stock with high growth rates and desirable wood property traits.
There is no impact on product quality because these plants are eliminated from the production system but, ultimately,
the problem impacts the bottom line and Horizon2’s ability to deliver product at a reasonable cost.
For the last year, staff at Horizon2’s Whakatane base have been trying to work out why some of the mother plants are
turning yellow and then becoming so weak that they snap off at ground level.
“We take the cuttings off them by hand,” says Kiri Armstrong, a Propagation Technologist with Horizon2, “and just moving
some of the branches a little to take a cutting, or brushing past the tree while walking down the row, can cause them to
snap at the base.”
After exhausting its own avenues, Horizon2 used Global Expert, which links businesses into a worldwide network of 20,000
technology experts, to find help with solving the problem. The recently launched service, offered by the Foundation for
Research, Science and Technology, confidentially puts business problems in front of the global network, with a short
list of experts with appropriate knowledge presented to the business within two to three weeks.
That connected Horizon2 with Dr David Thompson, based in Ireland and with many years experience working with somatic
embryogenesis, the process being used by Horizon2 to clone its plants.
Dr Thompson has worked with international companies experienced in somatic embryogenesis, which involves propagating
tissue from immature seeds in sterile, laboratory conditions, to rapidly multiply stock of preferred varieties.
He is spending two weeks in Whakatane, working with Horizon2 to see if he can crack the problem, which is costing
Horizon2 money and time.
“With each mother plant producing 50 trees out the gate, they are very valuable,” says Ms Armstrong.
The problem is also slowing production as Horizon2 is forced to apply an additional, much slower production step to 50
percent of the crop, in order to mitigate against the problem until the cause is found.
Horizon2 was formed in 2004, out of a merger between two leading forestry biotechnology entities – Carter Holt Harvey’s
Forest Genetics and Rubicon’s Trees & Technology.
Somatic embryogenesis was selected as the preferred cloning process because it generates more trees more quickly and the
base tissue can be cryogenically preserved and used many decades later if its progeny are high performers and forest
companies want more of them.
“We’ve been learning more about somatic embryogenesis and upscaling the technology during a research and development
project over the last few years. We’ve made significant advances towards optimising the technology, but this problem has
us stumped,” says Ms Armstrong.
She says the mother trees behave normally until they have been planted in the field for six to 12 months. Some then turn
yellow, indicating reduced uptake of nutrients, and often form a callus at the point where they later break off.
The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology has invested $800,000 in Horizon2’s research and development project
into somatic embryogenesis techniques, through its Technology for Business Growth (TBG) scheme.
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