ABSTRACT
Over the last 35 years, the production of paper has more than tripled. To be competitive, to reduce the uncontrolled exploitation of wild forests, and to limit energy and environmental problems, the forest products industry must develop genetically improved woody materials. Until now, genetic improvement of trees was achieved using conventional breeding methods, which are particularly difficult to exploit for woody species because of long generation times and evaluation of specific characters at the adult stage. Among the various facets of plant biotechnology, genetic engineering offers new opportunities and attractive perspectives for improving woody species. The first transgenic tree was obtained in 1987. Since that time, the development of genetic transformation techniques for several tree species and progress in the characterization of several important genes in woody plants have opened the door to wide exploitation of genetic engineering in forest management.
