Poplars play important role in global forestry. Besides being cultivated as an agro-forestry crop, they provide mankind with fuel wood, timber wood, plywood, sports goods, raw material for paper industry and recently, they are being used as a potential biofuel source. However, a number of biotic and abiotic stresses reduce poplar yield and productivity. Further, there is a strong felt need of paper and pulp industries to have reduced lignin content or modified lignin composition of poplar wood, which will assist in manufacturing better quality paper using less environmentally hazardous chemicals. Because of the non-availability of resistance donor sources and long generation period, conventional breeding could achieve success in genetic improvement of poplars. To circumvent these bottlenecks, genetic engineering interventions have been applied for poplar crop improvement. With the availability of Populus trichocarpa genome sequence in public domain, now numerous genes and transcription factors governing various metabolic pathways got identified, which can be targeted for genetic engineering for poplar improvement. Genome editing technology has really expedited the pace of poplar improvement programmes. This review provides an insight into various research efforts focused on poplar genetic engineering for improvement of silviculturally important traits.

杨树在全球林业中发挥着重要作用。除了作为农林作物种植之外，它们还为人类提供薪柴，木材，胶合板，体育用品，造纸工业原料，最近，它们被用作潜在的生物燃料来源。但是，许多生物和非生物胁迫都会降低杨树的产量和生产力。另外，迫切需要造纸和纸浆工业降低木质素含量或改变杨木的木质素组成，这将有助于使用对环境有害较小的化学品来生产更高质量的纸张。由于抗性供体来源的缺乏和较长的生长期，常规育种可成功实现杨树遗传改良。为了规避这些瓶颈，基因工程干预措施已应用于杨树作物改良。随着可用性毛果杨基因组序列是公共领域，现已鉴定出控制各种代谢途径的众多基因和转录因子，可作为遗传工程改良杨树的目标。基因组编辑技术确实加快了杨树改良计划的步伐。这篇综述提供了针对杨树基因工程的各种研究成果的见识，这些研究旨在改善造林重要的性状。