ELITE POPULATIONS FOR CONIFER BREEDING AND GENE CONSERVATION

Elite populations managed for short-term gain have received increasing attention as advanced-generation breeding strategies have taken shape for forest tree species. They are prevalent for two reasons: (1) thei r short-term gains provide justification for the rising costs of recur rent forest tree breeding and (2) the advent of control-pollinated see d production has reduced the requirement for a large number of unrelat ed selections. This paper addresses the concept of an elite population , its potential for compressed generation intervals, its predicted lon g-term selection response, as well as the concomitant risks of severe inbreeding depression and loss of genetic diversity.