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The article misstates > There used to be about 4 million American chestnut trees in eastern U.S. forests, until chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) arrived […] The number is closer to 4 billion with a B[1] Their range was across eastern North America and I’ve read estimates that they may have been a quarter to a third of the trees in those forests before the blight arrived. 1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am…
Thousands of eyes!
There is one in North Bergen, NJ. I won't say where. They can find it themselves!
It's okay, it's very unlikely that it's not a hybrid.
(I also have two seedlings sprouted from chestnuts I gathered a few years back)
If this interests you, I highly recommend the novel "Overstory", which was a pulitzer prize winner in the last few years. It's a fictional collection of stories, all linked by trees (it makes sense if you've read it). Beautifully written, and gave me a huge appreciation for trees.
And it was just a really great story in general. Definitely recommend.
If this tree had a secret to cultivating a resistant strain that would be very awesome. Is there a good app which lets you input your zip code, maybe also sun exposure and soil conditions, how many feet of width and height you have available, and then where it will spit out a list of well-suited tree specimens with some nice pictures of each?
Why stop at trees? I imagine you could do an alternate reality app for landscaping that shows you what your landscape "could look like". Including flower beds, ground cover alternatives to grass, etc.
Of course one-click ordering wouldn’t hurt, but I like to imagine you would still print out a shopping list and head over to the local nursery.
How can they all die so fast and sudden? Wouldn't we expect a certain % to have some immunity, and then those genes pass on and the population eventually recovers?
If this tree had a secret to cultivating a resistant strain that would be very awesome. Is there a good app which lets you input your zip code, maybe also sun exposure and soil conditions, how many feet of width and height you have available, and then where it will spit out a list of well-suited tree specimens with some nice pictures of each?
A walk around the block looking at what grows is another option. Seedling and seed from those trees tend to do well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good question. I'd imagine something like blight resistance would probably not be a simple case of a few specific genes we can just switch over. It could also just be technology. This breeding program has been around for 50 years or so and CRISPR only really took off around 2011. In addition, the original CRISPR-Ca9 caused a lot of unintended changes in DNA and it's really critical that the new trees are morphologica…
It actually is pretty "simple" in this case (the tree needs to produce a single chemical, oxalate oxidase). There is a program that has done this very successfully, and it just working through the regulatory process before wider distribution can happen. They have thousands of trees in (controlled) forest plots, including three generations of offspring.
Has anyone heard anything about the Darling 58 genetically modified American Chestnut that is resistant to the blight? Last I heard the USDA was reviewing it for approval to sell.
Here’s the 2021 update for the program: https://www.esf.edu/chestnut/progress-report/2021.htm
I often wonder how different the Blue Ridge mountains looked 100 years ago, with the American Chestnut and various other trees that different forms of blight have since killed. It’s kind of sad visiting Clingman’s Dome or Mt. Mitchell, where you can see the skeletons of all the dead trees.
How can they all die so fast and sudden? Wouldn't we expect a certain % to have some immunity, and then those genes pass on and the population eventually recovers?