The Teak Genome

lt;p>Dr. Yasodha Ramasamy is experienced in forest biotechnology for 30 years and is presently working as a senior scientist at Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore. She has expertise in tree tissue culture, clonal propagation, DNA markers, QTL mapping, and association genetics. Her research on micropropagation of bamboos, eucalypts and teak has been translated to field reality in the form of on-farm trials and large-scale adoption. She has substantially contributed in molecular characterization for clones, hybrids, and natural populations of eucalypts, teak, acacia, red sanders, and casuarina with various DNA marker systems for genetic diversity assessment, hybrid purity testing, and clonal DNA fingerprinting. Her research results were published in more than 40 international journals and book chapters. She has published the draft genome of teak by implementing a hybrid assembly strategy to integrate the short and long-read data. The genome assembly data was characterized to categorize the various groups of repeat elements and genes that encode proteins involved in the durability of teak which paved way for functional genomic analysis. SSRs variations across teak samples were identified, which served as genotypic markers for tree improvement and teak genetic resource conservation programs. She has guided several students for their doctoral research and post-graduate thesis dissertations. She has been awarded for research excellence in forest biotechnology and honored with national and international fellowships. Her current area of research includes SNP-based genetic linkage map development in tropical eucalypts and population genome analyses in teak toward deciphering genome-wide associations for climate adaptation.

Chapter 1. Teak: The King of Timbers.- Chapter 2. Teak Plantations and Wood Production.- Chapter 3. Modern Silvicultural Practices and Productivity of Teak.- Chapter 4. Analysis and Modeling of Teak growth: New Perspectives for Productivity Evaluation.- Chapter 5. Economics of Teak.- Chapter 6. Teak Biology and Ecology.- Chapter 7. Teak Wood Chemistry and Natural Durability.- Chapter 8. Wood Properties and their Variations in Teak.- Chapter 9. Seed Biology and Seed Orchard Dynamics in Teak.- Chapter 10. Clonal Teak.- Chapter 11. Clonal Characterization and Variety Registration of Teak.- Chapter 12. Genetic Diversity and Population Genetic Structure of Teak.- Chapter 13. Genetic Improvement of Teak.- Chapter 14. Molecular Physiology of Teak.- Chapter 15. Genome of Teak: Structure and Features.- Chapter 16. Functional Genomics of Teak.