Epigenetic Study of the Faux in the Verzy Forest

The objective of this project is help solve the mystery of the twisted beech phenotype, a mutant dwarf tree - Fagus sylvatica variety tortuosa – so far reported in several forests in France, Germany, Sweden and Denmark (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_de_Verzy). The most famous stand is located in Verzy (25km south of Reims, France) where hundreds of Faux (their given name from the old French "fagus") characterized by their tortuous trunks and branches pending to the ground, have been preserved by the national forest office. More precisely, we aim at discovering the molecular bases of this phenotype by comparing the methylomes of wild types (straight trees) and dwarf mutants of six genotypes displaying both the mutant and wild type phenotypes.