Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria

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Zander Myburg is Professor of Forest Genomics and Biotechnology at the University of Pretoria. His research focuses on the molecular genetics and genomics of wood formation in fast-growing trees such as Eucalyptus species and their hybrids. He is particularly interested in the molecular basis of quantitative variation in growth and wood properties and the development of biotechnology solutions to improve these properties in trees. Zander’s research programme has pioneered the application of genomics technologies, in particular transcriptome profiling by RNA sequencing, for population based analysis of xylem development. Integration of such data with other sources of biological data such as wood chemistry traits and metabolite profiles allows a systems genetics approach towards understanding of the complex biology of wood development.