CORVALLIS (AP) - The discovery of the genetic controls that cause trees to stop growing and go dormant in the fall may help forest and orchard managers, according to a new study.

Oregon State University researchers also have determined the genes that cause trees to begin flowering and produce seeds.

The discovery could make it possible to genetically engineer trees that flower and reproduce more quickly.

But public perception of the safety of genetic engineering remains a problem, resulting in limited interest by private industry and sometimes unwieldy regulations by government agencies, said Steven Strauss, an Oregon State forest genetics professor.

The long, slow growth of trees before they produce seed has been a major stumbling block toward the types of breeding that has been common with annual crop plants, researchers say.

“Before this we never really knew what genes were involved in the initiation of tree flowering or the cessation of growth in the fall,” Strauss said. “At least in theory, it may now be possible to dramatically speed up tree breeding programs and strategies.”

The genes could be used just to speed up conventional breeding, and then removed prior to commercial plantings, Strauss said. But the level of regulation and concern about genetic engineering may prevent even this application.

Researchers say the newly discovered genes reflect a critical tradeoff between tree growth and survival. Temperate trees have to stop growing and go dormant in the winter or they literally freeze to death.

“From an evolutionary perspective, its easy to understand why forest trees don't flower and produce seed and pollen earlier,” Strauss said. “When they are young, the trees that survive need to focus their energy on growth and height in order to compete for sunlight with other trees, and only later in their life do they divert energy to produce seed.”

The study by Oregon State, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and two other institutions was published in a recent edition of the journal Science.