Breeding for resistance: Diagnostic toolkit for predicting variation in plant defence compounds in Eucalyptus

Increasing the amount of wood and wood products from hardwood plantations is an important objective for the Australian economy. However, the productivity of plantations is compromised by insect and mammalian herbivores at a time when there is declining chemical support for existing pesticides. Tapping the natural reservoir of herbivore resistance in Eucalyptus is one of the few solutions to this dilemma. Extensive ecological studies have identified important natural chemical traits of eucalypts that make them resistant to herbivores. This proposal aims to translate these findings into rapid methods of selecting the most resistant genotypes in collaboration with major Australian plantation growers.