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Researchers at North Carolina State University have genetically modifying aspen trees to make them easier to convert to wood pulp.  Dr. Vincent L. Chiang, and his colleagues have reduced the trees' lignin content by about half and to a lesser extent increased the cellulose content.  The trees also grow faster.  Click here for the abstract.

That is very good news for the wood, paper and pulp industries, which spend billions of dollars separating lignin from the cellulose which they use to make paper.   The process is expensive and environmentally damaging because it requires harsh alkaline chemicals and much expensive fuel.   

The new trees offer the potential for both economic and environmental advantages, both directly by minimising fuel use, and indirectly as yields increase by reducing pressure on existing forests.   These can then be managed less intensively for habitat conservation, aesthetics and recreational uses
 
Like any GM research, safety is an issue.  However four-year field trials of such trees in France and the United Kingdom show that lignin-modified transgenic trees do not have detrimental or unusual ecological impacts in the areas tested.

Full article details. 

Combinatorial modification of multiple lignin traits in trees through multigene cotransformation.  Laigeng Li *, Yihua Zhou *, Xiaofei Cheng *, Jiayan Sun *, Jane M. Marita ¶, John Ralph ¶, and Vincent L. Chiang *  *School of Forestry and Wood Products, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931; and ¶U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.   Published online before print March 31, 2003.   Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0831166100

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Last modified: February 11, 2006