https://phys.org/news/2018-10-genes-aspen-tree.html

Charting the set of genes present in a species provides perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle for all kinds of biology studies that, once available, enables virtually any type of study. The mapping of the human genome (published in 2001) was the foundation for a broad range of breakthroughs in medicine in the 21st century. Swedish tree researchers were early comers to this area, with work starting in 1998 that provided a first mapping for a subset of the aspen genes as well as contributing to the first complete mapping of a tree genome – black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) in 2006. This was only the third plant genome to be published, with only thale cress (Arabidopsis) and rice being available earlier.

In 2008-2009, a small group of Swedish researchers at the Umeå Plant Science Centre took on the challenge of mapping the aspen (Populus tremula) genome. Despite the fact that no such extensive genome project had been carried out in Sweden, they were optimistic; new, cheaper and more powerful techniques had just become available and pilot studies using these had shown that, among other things, the genetic variation in aspen was enormous. Indeed, in some respects, two aspen trees are, on average, as genetically different as a human and a chimpanzee. The project received a total of one million kronor from the Centre for Metagenomic Sequence Analysis—a precursor to SciLife Lab, which was formed in 2010—and the Kempe Foundation and Nathaniel Street, a postdoc at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, started the practical work.