Huntsville’s HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is teaming up with The American Chestnut Foundation to demonstrats that chestnut breeding–guided by genetic information–can dramatically accelerate restoration efforts of the American Chestnut, while preserving the traits that made the tree an essential part of Appalachian forests.
Sound complicated? Here’s what to know:
Bringing back the American chestnut
Essentially, HudsonAlpha and TACF are breeding chestnut trees that can withstand blight, and this is none by breeding an Asian chestnut with an American chestnut.
HudsonAlpha scientists built three of the first and most complete chestnut genome assemblies ever. Led by Faculty Investigator Jeremy Schmutz and Research Faculty Investigator John Lovell, PhD, the team mapped the species’ DNA, creating reference blueprints that helped reveal how resistance works at the molecular level…