This gene encodes an enzyme known as oxalate oxidase that detoxifies oxalate, the harmful compound produced by C. The group inserted a gene from wheat into the tree’s genome. Researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry took a different approach, using genetic engineering to produce a blight-resistant American chestnut.Įrik Carlson is a graduate student at State University of New York. Plus, as hybrids, some may view them as no longer being true American chestnuts. Also, those hybrids faced additional downsides, such as the low transmission of blight resistance to offspring and reduced forest stature. The first attempt involved breeding it with Asian chestnut tree species that have a natural blight resistance, but that effort took nearly three decades to consistently maintain resistance. The rapid decimation of the American chestnut kicked off a race to protect and restore it to its former glory. The fungal infection was impossible to control and ultimately left the American chestnut functionally extinct since the middle of the 20th century. forests alongside the loblolly pines, tulip poplars, and white oaks, until a fungal blight pathogen from Asia, Cryphonectria parasitica, wiped out an estimated four billion trees. These giants used to thrive in the eastern U.S. Some of these trees would reach 100 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, earning them the nickname the “redwoods of the east.”

The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, was once one of the largest and most prominent trees in American eastern forests. Chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica).

Blight resistant chestnut