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American chestnuts once dominated the forests of the eastern United States, with their majestic canopies, plentiful nuts and useful lumber. A century ago, a fungus swept through and annihilated these trees, leaving only a few individuals that were resistant to the blight.
Almost from the start, American chestnut lovers have been trying to bring them back. First efforts relied on traditional crossbreeding with Asian chestnuts, which can naturally withstand the fungal blight. As knowledge advanced, researchers started using new technology to genetically modify trees.
Steve Strauss, a professor of forest biotechnology, describes how labs are now experimenting with faster breeding methods that rely on identifying DNA segments or whole genes and their products. “The goal is to figure out how the presence or absence of a particular gene, the matching mRNA transcripts or cellular biochemicals that a gene codes for relates to blight resistance,” he writes. Then they can use genetic engineering techniques to insert the pertinent genes into baby American chestnuts.
Strauss and his colleagues are hopeful that these new genomic approaches will be key to restoring the American chestnut to our forests. But first they need to overcome some big challenges – not just scientific, but also social.
This week we also liked stories on how 2-year-olds think, pitfalls to avoid when seeking healthcare outside the U.S., and an Indigenous perspective on a decision to dramatically cut the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
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