Chestnut Tree: Genetic Engineering Could Save It, Scientists Say

By: OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Published: 04/16/2012 09:23 AM EDT on OurAmazingPlanet

Once plentiful, the American chestnut tree has largely disappeared, killed off by a deadly fungus that began felling the trees 100 years ago.

This month, researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, N.Y., are planning to plant 10 chestnut trees with a tweaked gene that they believe will help the trees stave off the pathogen that brought their ruin.

William Powell, a plant biotechnology expert at ESF, and his colleague Charles Maynard, have incorporated a gene into the test trees that they derived from a breed of wheat. The gene has been shown to increase resistance in hybrid poplar trees to fungal pathogens.

The American chestnut tree was once a dominant species in the forests of the eastern United States; it accounted for 25 percent of the trees in the forest. A healthy chestnut tree can grow more than 100 feet (30 meters) tall and measure 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter.

Not only do the trees produce chestnuts — great for feeding wildlife and humans alike — but their wood is rot-resistant and fast-growing, Powell said, which was important for the lumber industry.

"We really want to bring [the chestnut] back. The only way it can come back is to make a resistant tree, because no one has been able to control the blight any other way," Powell said in a statement.

The hybrid chestnut trees are slated to be planted at a test site in the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx on April 18. The location is significant.

"That's a stone's throw — literally across the street — from where the blight was discovered in 1904," Maynard said in a statement.

The trees slated to be planted in the Botanical Garden are among more than 100 varieties of transgenic American chestnuts that are being tested in field trials or waiting to be tested for blight resistance.

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Comments

[kinogod]

07:27 PM on 04/25/2012

This is a story we will be saying over and over all across the universe; the comeback of some ancient species regrown. Then regret will be an old feeling seldom felt and that will be a good thing?

[Fatema Zohura]

03:57 AM on 04/19/2012

nice, i would try it.

[rikster]

08:49 PM on 04/17/2012

as long as Monsanto is not involved....

[FearlessLeader]

11:36 AM on 04/17/2012

SUNY happens to be the State University of New York. State. Government. Funded by TAX dollars. And yet the Tea Party and the Republicans keep telling us that government never does anything good, except when it's bombing other countries.

[RoughCollie]

07:26 AM on 04/17/2012

Ohhhh....I'm happy to read about the Chestnut tree experiment, I've had had them in a few of my previous yards where they shaded our home but was disappointed (in a way) about the article., When I read the headline "Iconic American Tree" I was so excited, I thought it would be an article about a reintroduction of the Elm Trees...(sigh) I miss them. The Maine town I was born in was nicknamed Elm City, there were so many of them lining the streets until Dutch Elm disease killed them all..

[William K]

11:31 AM on 04/17/2012

Same here, Collie; the suburb of Chicago I grew up in was devastated by Dutch Elm disease too, I really hope something can be done to restore their population. They were a magnificent sight when fully leafed out, and provide such cooling shade in the middle of summer.

[Angel1999]

10:31 PM on 04/17/2012

We still have lots of them down in Texas, although they're always susceptible to mistletoe.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

05:04 AM on 04/17/2012

I used to work at a hotel on the Olympic Peninsula that had one huge magnificent Chestnut tree. The blossoms in spring were wonderful and in the fall the chestnuts covered the ground like a convention of little green hedgehogs. (The outer shell is covered with prickles.) I assumed the tree was planted before the blight and that the reason it never reached there was that there were no other chestnuts for hundreds of miles.

I would love to see the Chestnut make a comeback, and I sincerely hope this experiment will succeed.

[Miss Cocoa]

09:43 PM on 04/16/2012

Great. Let's hope they can also save the elm and the ash.

[FearlessLeader]

11:29 AM on 04/17/2012

Western Forests could use some new ideas to save the pine trees.

[Jim Milks]

07:39 PM on 04/17/2012

My thoughts exactly. I'm in a part of Ohio where the Emerald Ash Borer is expected to wipe out most of the ash trees this year.

[robodawa]

09:23 PM on 04/16/2012

For years I was a member of the American Chestnut Society (Got turned on to it thru the Seedsavers of Decorah IA) ACS had been doing back crosses for years. I think they have a tree that is blight resistant and 31/32nds American Chestnut.
I have been in farm houses in N E that were made with Chestnut wood . The timber is fine grain, dark and strong. The wood has a great deal of tannin in it.
And at one time the odd pieces were reduced to tanning liquor and used to give hides a dark brown to thick chocolate finish.
So, I guess I am saying that we need this tree back ASAP.
I hope this article gets people interested on the Chestnut revival. And does ANY ONE
there have any ideas how to slow or stop the American Beech Blight? (It's that white fungus that wraps around the tree and then kills it.) It's all over the great lakes and into the Mississippi Valley.

[msiletta]

08:37 PM on 04/16/2012

Maybe if this new propagation of chestnut trees succeeds, the price of chestnuts will become affordable. One Christmas, the price was nearly $7.00 a pound.

[Linda from Deerfield]

08:31 PM on 04/16/2012

I grew up with 2 chestnut trees. Nobody believes me, but it is true. They must have just been so far away from the last infected trees that they never caught the blight. I always loved them and I am thrilled to think that there might be a way for the tree to resume its former place. However, I worry that today's Americans are not prepared to accept its spiny nutcases. People are different today, and they don't have the cultural memory. My romanticism will not compensate a little boy with a mess of painful stickers in the heel of his hand.

[RoughCollie]

07:32 AM on 04/17/2012

I believe you, I had them in my yard at two homes I lived in, but that was in Maine (the last house was 7 years ago). I never bought chestnuts, just delightfully picked them up off the ground by the bushel! Yep, I agree those pickers can be prickly.

[Linda from Deerfield]

08:46 AM on 04/17/2012

Thank you! Delighted to hear of your trees -- mine were in Illinois.

[roscoewpa]

01:38 AM on 04/18/2012

There are a bunch of them here in johnstown,Pa and they seem to be very healthy and they produce nuts they are great roasted. At one time johnstown used to be a large exporter of chestnuts. I dont know exactly why they arent affected but they found old trees that were killed and their roots are still able to produce new trees. They are doing studies now to see what else they can do to prevent blight from killing them

[cagog]

07:05 PM on 04/16/2012

SUPER TREES.

[jf12]

06:32 PM on 04/16/2012

Yay. The American chestnut is the best tree. The wood is excellent, and chestnuts are a lot better to eat than acorns. They were the heart and soul of the Eastern forest. Regarding the legendary squirrel who could have traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without touching the ground, it could have gotten there on just chestnut trees alone.

[OC Surfer]

03:06 AM on 04/19/2012

Nothing matches the Chinese Elm.

[jf12]

08:42 AM on 04/19/2012

For sheer beauty and nice vibes the Sugar Maple is hard to beat.

[rg9rts]

05:12 PM on 04/16/2012

As a tree hugger I'm elated at the news now for a solution to Dutch Elm Disease. Another American icon on the verge of extinction.

[Miss Cocoa]

09:45 PM on 04/16/2012

Also the Ash.

[Eclipse-girl]

03:35 AM on 04/17/2012

I worry about the ash. We have a beautiful ash, but live in south central Wisconsin where the borer is slowly invading

But If the ash has to go, and I could replace it with a Chestnut, I would be happy.

[Audrey Ferragamo]

10:21 PM on 04/17/2012

I just moved back to nm,and we have many Elms .And people just HATE them.I have 3 beautiful full trees in my backyard.I love them.they keep me shaded in summer and cool.But I guess they are not Dutch Elm,as they are so scorned here,what do you think?

[rg9rts]

03:57 AM on 04/18/2012

The tree is the American elm the disease is called dutch. Its a wind borne fungus as I understand and it has been spreading southwards for at least 60 years that I know of, No known cure.

[Alexander Forbes]

04:51 PM on 04/16/2012

Good luck to the endangered Chestnut species. I enjoyed the video clips too: I planted a 5-gallon redwood in a yard in about 1975. I was in the neighborhood again late last year; the redwood is now way over 100' tall.

[Eclipse-girl]

03:34 AM on 04/17/2012

I am envious of that size of a tree.

I hope the tree continues on long after anyone of us.