Phenobois

Phenobois brings together several laboratories and workshops supported by the INRAE: the Val de Loire BioForA Units (Orléans site), the Nouvelle-Aquitaine-Bordeaux BioGéCo Centre (Cestas and Pessac sites) and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes PIAF Centre (Clermont-Crouël site). Phenobois is a high-speed platform for assessing wood properties and the hydraulic functioning of plant xylem in studies oncerning: i) the influence of genetic improvement on productivity, the wood quality of forest trees and forest resilience; and ii) the influence of global changes on tree survival and productivity, and on the functioning of forest ecosystems. Phenobois aims are: - To provide research institutions and industry with a common platform describing wood properties to better understand the biological and ecological processes involved in wood development. - To understand the environmental and genetic determinants of the variability in wood properties in i) plantation forests and ii) semi-natural forests with little human influence. - To identify the mechanisms involved in the adaptation and response of trees to water stress. - To provide phenotyping tools to identify new genotypes that perform well in terms of productivity, resistance to abiotic stress and resilience. Services offer Phenobois carries out a variety of measurements for the direct or indirect assessment of phenotypic parameters related to the physico-chemical properties of wood and the hydraulic properties of trees: - Analysis of the chemical composition of wood: polyphenols, cellulose, lignins, hemicelluloses, and soluble and structural sugars; wood ash can also be analysed. - Biomass quality assessments: saccharification potential - X-ray microdensitometry: density variations within growth rings - Physical and mechanical measurements: density, shrinkage, stiffness, colour - Micro and macroscopic studies of wood tissue - X-ray microtomography: 3D structure and operation of the vascular system - Cavitation vulnerability studies - In vivo observation of embolism - Indirect assessment of the chemical composition of wood by near-infrared spectrometry The platform’s laboratories and workshops also have partially automated processing lines for plant samples (sawing, grinding, separating), making it possible to achieve a high throughput. Analyses vary according to the technology used; from one hundred to tens of thousands of samples can be processed each year. Over the last four years, more than 10 French research units and 30 international universities or institutes have used our various facilities to describe wood properties and plant resistance to drought.