Thomas Klak and his students are working to produce pollen in the seedlings through intense, speed breeding conditions
UNE is the only place in New England where students are working with fungal blight-tolerant American chestnut seedlings. A team of scientists created the seedlings by inserting a gene from wheat into them. The wheat gene protects the plant from fungal blight. Many wild and food plants, such as grasses, mosses, bananas and strawberries, have that same gene to defend against blight.
Only a few institutions across the country now have the seedlings. “These are valuable resources, and we want to be very careful with them,” commented Thomas Klak, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Environmental Studies. “This is the first time a blight-tolerant American chestnut has existed in New England in the tree’s 55-million-year history. We believe this is the beginning of a real turnaround for the American chestnut.”
Read the full article at the University of New England.
