• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2001

Trees have the ability to undergo secondary growth and produce a woody body. This tree-specific growth is affected by the secondary vascular system and the developmental continuum of secondary phloem and xylem. Secondary growth is one of the most important biological processes on earth. Considering its economic and environmental significance, our knowledge of tree growth and development is surprisingly limited. Trees have received little attention as model species in plant science, as most Plant biology questions can be best addressed by using herbaceous model species, such as Arabidopsis. Furthermore, tree biology is difficult to study mainly due to the inherent problems of tree species, including large size, long generation time, large genome size, and recalcitrance to biotechnological manipulations. Despite all of this, one must rely on trees as models to study tree-specific questions, such as secondary growth, which cannot be studied effectively in non-woody model species. Recent advances in genomics technology provide a unique opportunity to overcome these inherent tree-related problems. Several groups, including our own, have been successful in studying the biology of wood formation with a variety of hardwood and softwood species. In this article, 1 first review the current understanding of tree growth and then discuss the recent attempts to fully explore and realize the potential of molecular biology as a tool for enhanced understanding of secondary growth.