College of Forestry

Strauss Lab research was featured in the October 2018 issue of The Forestry Source, published by the Society of American Foresters

“There’s still more to know and more research to be done, but this looks really good,” said corresponding author Steve Strauss, distinguished professor of forest biotechnology at OSU. “It’s very exciting.”

Steve Strauss, a distinguished professor of biotechnology at OSU, joins OPB's Think Out Loud to discuss a recent field study that demonstrated trees can be genetically engineered to prevent new seedlings from establishing. They discuss the findings from the largest aggregate study of genetically engineered trees in the world.

The largest field-based study of genetically modified forest trees ever conducted has demonstrated that genetic engineering can prevent new seedlings from establishing. “There’s still more to know and more research to be done, but this looks really good,” said corresponding author Steve Strauss, distinguished professor of forest biotechnology at OSU. “It’s very exciting.”

Steve Strauss is working with students, faculty and researchers on a new type of genetic technology known as gene editing, or CRISPR. It gives researchers the ability to specify precisely where a genetic change will be made—something that was essentially impossible before. Strauss says the technology is only a few years old and is an exciting step for biotechnology.

“Scientists saw that and thought, What the hell is this?” said Steve Strauss, a forest biotechnology professor at Oregon State University. As it turned out, bacteria that survive a viral invasion use CRISPR to store the viral gene sequences within their own DNA to “remember” and destroy the virus if it returns.

PDF files of Steve's presentation can be found on the Presentations page.

PDF files of Steve's presentations at the Plant and Animal Genome XVI conference in San Diego can be found on the Presentations page.

Strauss was invited to present the benefits and obstacles to recombinant DNA forms of biotechnology in a December 1, 2017 lecture to the National Academy of Sciences Committee: The Potential for Biotechnology to Address Forest Health

Glenn Howe and Steve Strauss recently published an article titled Biotechnology Research is Developing New Tools for Tree Breeders in Western Forester