New Discovery - Blight Resistant Chestnut

[Don H]

Interesting article on a recent discovery that has produced blight resistant Chestnuts by splicing a gene from a wheat plant.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1106082032.htm

[Wise Old Owl]

Thank's for a great read!

[imscotty]

It would be great if in a few centuries the Appalachian forests could be restored to their former glory. Now how about those Elms....

[burger]

Cool stuff. FYI, I have you have hiked on the AT anywhere south of Vermont, you have walked by lots of small chestnuts that continue to sprout from the roots of the long-dead trees. It would be really exciting to see mature chestnuts again on the AT. There's also been a program that cross-bred American and Asian chestnuts to make a blight-resistant tree. Those guys are already to the point of planting trees in the woods in some small areas.

[Feral Bill]

I'd help plant.

[WingedMonkey]

There's also been a program that cross-bred American and Asian chestnuts to make a blight-resistant tree.

Strange enough, one of the most successful is the Dunstan Chestnut with nursery stock grown in in North Florida (they are not native to Florida).

In 1962, seedling trees from the first cross began to bear. Selecting the individuals with the most hybrid characteristics, Dr. Dunstan crossed them back to the American and Chinese parent trees. The resulting second generation was moved to Alachua in north central Florida, on our nursery property, where the trees have been growing and bearing every year for almost 50 years

http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/...-Chestnut.aspx


Which would be more "natural" crossbreeds or transgenic?

[imscotty]

The woods around my house are full of Chestnuts that valiantly try again and again to regrow from their rootstock. Some make it 3-4 inches in diameter before they die back again. Makes me sad. I can only imagine what these forests were like before the blight.

[burger]

Which would be more "natural" crossbreeds or transgenic?

Well, the transgenic one has that foreign gene but is otherwise just an American chestnut. The crossbred one is derived from a hybrid Asian-American chestnut but then was backcrossed over and over with American chestnuts so that it's something like 99% American, gene-wise.

So they are both pretty much American. It will be interesting to see if either kind is able to do well on its own in the forest.

[shelb]

I embedded many links in the post below. If the text is blue and your are interested in more information, click on it.

Michigan State University, known for its horticultural program, has been working on that hybrid for several years

Better yet, the results may be seen in "Chestnut Tree Farms" that are sprouting up in Michigan. In fact, we even have some of our craft brewers using chestnuts in an autumn or winter special brew! This is something I am really pushing my son to do (he opened a craft brewery, Pigeon Hill, last March and has had to triple his brewing capacity to keep up with demand.

You may also order Michigan Chestnuts online!

I would LOVE to plant some chestnut trees; however, I do not have the room. If you know someone who does, please encourage them to plant!

[HeartFire]

so now we have genetically engineered chestnuts - no thanks. The ones with the cross breeding to the Chinese chestnut are doing just fine. There are also still many (well some) pure American Chestnut trees that for some reason have not succumbed to the blight. I had a paper grocery bag full of delicious chestnuts early in the fall off a tree in the back of a cemetery near me. They were heavenly! I also found a good sized tree with nuts on the Bartram Trail not too long ago.

[Don H]

The Dunstan (Chinese) Chestnut has 2500 introduced genes, the one in the article has 2 introduced genes out of 40,000.

[Ktaadn]

so now we have genetically engineered chestnuts - no thanks. The ones with the cross breeding to the Chinese chestnut are doing just fine. There are also still many (well some) pure American Chestnut trees that for some reason have not succumbed to the blight. I had a paper grocery bag full of delicious chestnuts early in the fall off a tree in the back of a cemetery near me. They were heavenly! I also found a good sized tree with nuts on the Bartram Trail not too long ago.

This is great to hear. Now, stop eating the chestnuts and start planting them. Thanks.

[WingedMonkey]

The Dunstan (Chinese) Chestnut has 2500 introduced genes, the one in the article has 2 introduced genes out of 40,000.

Yeah, but now the millions of Americans that think they are alergic to wheat won't be able to eat chestnuts.

[Traveler]

Great article!

[Odd Man Out]

It would be great if in a few centuries the Appalachian forests could be restored to their former glory. Now how about those Elms....

and ash trees!

I suppose those opposed to GMOs will put up a stink. I appreciated the section where they point out that the currently available blight resistant hybrids have thousands of foreign genes introduced from other chestnut species. This GMO has only two foreign genes and is thus much more similar to the original native species. Yet for some people, the fact that this was done in a lab makes it toxic.

"...GM Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...."

"...Under the GM Chestnut tree, the village smithy stands..."

[Tuckahoe]

"...Under the GM Chestnut tree, the village smithy stands..."

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhh nnnnnnoooooo...

[rocketsocks]

and ash trees!

I suppose those opposed to GMOs will put up a stink. I appreciated the section where they point out that the currently available blight resistant hybrids have thousands of foreign genes introduced from other chestnut species. This GMO has only two foreign genes and is thus much more similar to the original native species. Yet for some people, the fact that this was done in a lab makes it toxic.

"...GM Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...."

"...Under the GM Chestnut tree, the village smithy stands..."

I like what Penn and Teller...(well not teller) has to say about GMO's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m49j_d8MW-k

[Odd Man Out]

I embedded many links in the post below. If the text is blue and your are interested in more information, click on it.

Michigan State University, known for its horticultural program, has been working on that hybrid for several years

Better yet, the results may be seen in "Chestnut Tree Farms" that are sprouting up in Michigan. In fact, we even have some of our craft brewers using chestnuts in an autumn or winter special brew! This is something I am really pushing my son to do (he opened a craft brewery, Pigeon Hill, last March and has had to triple his brewing capacity to keep up with demand.

You may also order Michigan Chestnuts online!

I would LOVE to plant some chestnut trees; however, I do not have the room. If you know someone who does, please encourage them to plant!

I was in grad school in the Plant Research Lab at MSU years ago and back then they found that there were some mutant strains for the Chestnut Blight that would infect trees, make them a little sick, but not kill them. But then they found trees infected by this strain were immune from the more virulent strain, which explains why some trees survive. In other cases, it is that they are isolated populations that never got infected. If you are in Spring Lake, then you probably know about the chestnut farm just east of Spring Lake off Leonard on the way to Eastmanville.

https://www.facebook.com/ChestnutFarms

[dbva]

The ACCF, for years, has been selectively breeding 100% pure American Chestnuts for blight resistance. Seems that more publicity and science should be devoted to those trying to restore the true American Chestnut. http://accf-online.org/