Chestnut Tree
Storyboard Text
- Yes! Pretty much all wood is made from chestnuts and humans and wildlife like to eat it!
- Do wildlife like to eat chestnuts too?
- Because humans introduced an exotic pathogen from Asia which created fungus called chestnut blight and it killed the trees.
- Why are the chestnut trees functionally extinct?
- Yes there are multiple programs. One program looks at the bacteria in the genes and moving those genes into new trees. Its called direct transgenics.
- Are there any programs that people are doing to re bread these trees?
- One example comes from wheat. This detoxifies the fungus on the trees and it is giving the ability for the tree to defend itself against the fungus.
- Can you give me an example of one of the genes?
- Yes it worked! Before, the cankers on the tree killed the branches, and for the transgenic trees, there is no damage and becoming very resistant.
- Is the experiment working at all? What are the results?
- Getting approval from the FDA, USDA, and EPA. They then can go and create a restoration program.
- What are the next steps to putting these trees back into the wild?
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