Jim Mattsson

Areas of interest

Our research focuses on local crops and wild tree species.
Blueberries and raspberries are tasty, nutritious, and a valuable source of income for British Columbia, but growers face a shifting set of challenges. Harvest and income are concentrated in a short window each year, when large volumes and limited processing capacity depress prices. The plants also face drought, heat stress, and various pathogens, all intensifying under climate change — and conventional breeding is too slow and imprecise to keep pace. We're addressing this through collaborative work on year-round local berry production and rapid, targeted, non-transgenic gene editing. We've also used transcriptomics to identify new viral variants and previously undescribed viruses causing severe blueberry disease, and we're now developing better diagnostics and, longer term, genetic resistance.
Forest tree species have life cycles too long to keep pace with rapid climate change. We've identified hybrid poplar variants with superior drought resistance for planting across the Canadian Prairies, where drought and heat are intensifying. With collaborators, we've also used family screens and transcriptomics to identify provenances, gene sets, and natural variants for improving drought tolerance in ponderosa pine — a naturally drought-resistant species still under threat in BC's increasingly hot, dry Interior.
Western redcedar, a keystone species on the coast, faces deer browsing of young seedlings and lumber losses from heartwood rot, compounded by the disappearance of old-growth stands. We've identified the gene sets behind the metabolites, including specific mono-, sesqui-, and diterpenes produced recombinantly in vitro, that deter browsing and fungal decay. The goal is to enable marker-assisted selection for rot-resistant heartwood, a trait otherwise impossible to breed for directly, since these compounds take 20 years to accumulate in wood.
Yellow cedar thrives at wet sites and produces wood unmatched by other Canadian softwoods, yet trees are dying en masse along the BC and Alaska coast. Climate warming drives this decline (YCD): premature snowmelt and soil warming leave shallow roots exposed, ironically making them vulnerable to fatal spring cold snaps. We're screening trees for greater root freezing tolerance to breed superior lines for reforesting YCD-affected areas.
Find our publications on Google Scholar.

Education

• BSc, Uppsala University, Sweden
• PhD, Uppsala University, Sweden

Biography