On May 22, 2013, researchers from the Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer Agency, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University LavalMega announced the genomes of spruce species was decoded.

At 20-30 billion base-pairs and up to 10 times larger than the human genome, the white spruce genome, published in Bioinformatics, and the Norway spruce genome, published in Nature, are also the largest genome sequence assemblies to date

“Genome-based marker system could serve to reduce the time of a spruce breeding cycle from currently 25 to as short as five years, and will contribute directly to the competitiveness of the Canadian and Scandinavian forest industry,” says Prof. John MacKay of Université Laval, a co-author of both studies.