Coniferous trees are of major economic and ecologic importance. Yet, they are genomically poorly studied, because their long generation times, their high levels of heterozygosity and their huge genomes impede the access to conifer genomic resources. The European silver fir (Abies alba MILL) is widely distributed across diverse habitats in mountainous areas of temperate Europe. The species is of high value for forestry due to its high quality timber and its ecosystem functions such as erosion

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... trol and landslide prevention. Using next-generation sequencing the first silver fir transcriptome was sequenced and annotated. The annotation protocol lead to the identification of 460 candidate genes that are putatively involved in environmental stress resistance. Additionally, the transcriptomes of twelve more individuals were sequenced. Subsequent SNP detection produced on average 24580 SNPs per individual. For the SNPs that lie on the annotated candidate genes, a KASP genotyping assay was designed that allows for the fast and cost efficient genotyping of many A. alba trees. In the Mediterranean Basin, A. alba occurs in isolated and comparatively small populations. Recently, strong die-off events were observed in these populations, likely as a result of severe droughts. In the course of climate change, droughts are predicted to increase further in frequency and severity endangering the persistence of Mediterranean A. alba populations. Particularly these populations may, however, be of special value for the adaptive potential of the whole species since they may harbor genetic resources preadapted to relatively xeric environments. There is an ongoing debate about assisted migration, i.e. the transplantation of Mediterranean A. alba populations to more northern population in order to use them as donors of drought adapted alleles. To [...]