In research carried out with the support of the company CMPC, scientists from UdeC and the University of Valencia obtained the first version of the Araucaria Araucana genome. This will help improve conservation strategies for the Chilean endemic species, which has been declared a natural monument.
By: Soledad Toledo Cabrera, Journalist – Vice-Rectorate for Research and Development lucabrer@udec.cl
Images: copyright Rodrigo Hasbún y Jaime Espejo
“It is a living fossil,” says Professor Rodrigo Hasbún Zaror about the Araucaria Araucana, a coniferous tree known to the Mapuches as Pehuén. According to the UdeC Faculty of Forestry Sciences professor, it was around with the dinosaurs millions of years ago. This already makes it a unique species, which has survived a series of natural shocks, territorial changes, and natural disasters. “It is very fire-resistant; it has a very thick bark and withstands extreme environmental conditions very well. In fact, recently, we saw how it was damaged by more than 10 years of drought, where it was mentioned that more than 90% of the araucarias were drying up. However, today, we travel through those same places, and the Araucaria is green, growing.”
The fruit of the Chilean Araucaria, the pine nuts, have a high nutritional value and were the basis of the diet for the Pehuenche, inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. However, its slow growth discourages its productive cultivation. “It has other times,” says Hasbún. “It is an ancient species, and it has been discovered that its leaves can last 24 years.”
Dr. Hasbún is also director of the Plant Epigenetics Laboratory and adds another particularity: “It can regrow and grow back. Sometimes, when we find a plant, we don’t know if it has been there since it was seeded or if the process of burning and regrowth has occurred many times in the same individual.”
Knowing to care
Despite its remarkable characteristics, the Araucaria is an endangered species. “Among the main threats is illegal logging. At first, it was cut to clear land. It was burned without people knowing what was being destroyed,” the researcher laments. Today, thanks to its definition as a Natural Monument, cutting it for any purpose is forbidden. “But if we don’t know it, it’s difficult to care for it. You may have the best intentions but not know how to contribute to its conservation.”
That is why he has been working for two years on the “Araucaria Araucana Genome” project, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Óscar Toro, an academic of the Department of Botany of UdeC’s Faculty of Natural and Oceanographic Sciences, and Dr. Tomas Matus, of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology of the University of Valencia (Spain). The initiative, funded by CMPC, is at the forefront of a strategy for protecting, restoring, and conserving native biodiversity. This initiative aims to sequence, assemble, and annotate the genome of the Araucaria Araucana.
The genome is an organism or species’ genetic material (DNA) and can be deciphered as a code using sequencing technology. The Araucaria genome could be the largest genome assembled in Chile so far, considering that it is eight times the size of the human genome.
“Genomic sequencing consists of deciphering a species’ DNA sequence, which comprises millions and millions of bases.” The professor explains that it is like imagining a book that is falling apart without several of its pages. To put it back together, you have to find all the loose sheets, read them, remember them, and rebind the book according to the story you are reading. In the case of the Araucaria, it has an ancient and complex history, and a part of what has happened in these millions of years has been recorded in that genome.
It is undoubtedly a complex task for any group of scientists. “But hey, you have to set yourself important challenges to achieve great things, and the Araucaria Araucana deserves this effort,” Hasbún said.
A book about the past and the future
The project currently has the first fragmented version of the Araucaria Araucana genome, from which it is hoped to progress to a complete genome. Thanks to this species’ long evolutionary history and genetic stability, reaching this milestone will offer a window into the biological and environmental conditions of the past. In addition, there are currently only 22 reference genomes of conifer species, one fully assembled and five at the chromosome level, but none for the Araucaria.
This knowledge could support strategies to protect this species, which grows mainly in two places in our country: the Andes Mountain Range and the Coastal Mountain Range, with different environmental conditions. The coastal populations are the most threatened today, and it is forbidden to intervene where they are found, including collecting their seeds, which are consumed as fruits or transformed into plants. However, it is impossible to identify the origin of the plants or the pine nuts; therefore, the control is truncated.
Knowing which genotypes could better withstand the environmental conditions from climate change is another advantage that will allow conservation and restoration plans to be better managed. “We were missing this navigation chart, which is much more accurate,” says Dr. Hasbún.
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Listen to the interview with Dr. Rodrigo Hasbún in the program “Señales del Futuro” (Signs of the Future).
