SCIENCE - The Introduction: Resurrecting the American Chestnut Tree

A pandemic like the one we live in, but 1,000 times worse… Can you imagine it? Do you want to imagine it? Whether or not you answered yes, the American Chestnut trees didn’t have an option. The same trees that inspire the famous lyrics…”Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”, were entirely eliminated in the 19th century. The wildly populated tree began its extinction after the introduction to the Chinese Chestnut Tree that spread a fungus unfamiliar to the American Chestnuts, resulting in Chestnut Blights, first discovered in 1904 at the Bronx Zoo. Over 4 billion trees that blanketed the grounds of North America for centuries, were lost. For years on end, the American Chestnut tree was the biggest contributor to the environment as well as the economy. The tree acted as a “source of mast" according to the USDA, and its rot-resistant traits made it highly dependable for log cabins and flooring in colloquial times.

This pivotal extinction in nature urged many to research the methods of resurrection. Currently, scientists are experimenting on crossing the American Chestnut Trees with the Chinese Chestnut Trees in aims to create a hybrid that is tolerant to the fungus while maintaining the features of the American Chestnut. In addition, biotechnology generates hope for the future. The State University of New York discovered, through genetic engineering, a gene from wheat that codes for an enzyme tolerant against the Chinese Chestnut Fungus. Researchers are in the process of requesting a grant to continue studies to create the Darling 58, which will also be the first genetically engineered tree to be planted in the wild.

While you can’t bring any species back automatically with these fixes, they are making great strides towards the recovery of the American Chestnut. A monumental process embarking the greatest moments in environmental discoveries is right in front of us!

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“If you destroy the environment it is going to turn around and bite back,” says Stuart Pimm, Duke Professor of Conservation at Duke University. The extinction rate is currently almost 1,000 times higher with nearly a million species at risk because of the human race. With scientists calling it the sixth mass extinction, we have driven the planet’s biodiversity into an unprecedented decline. While it is severely undermined, the human involvement with the health and growth of non-human human species is significant.

In the generation of technological advancements, biotechnology offers the light in the darkness to save endangered species and resurrect the plummeting genetic diversity of a population. It’s strength comes in the versatility of solution offering methods. In dealing with the viability of genetics in a population, biotechnology offers a tunnel of opportunity to do just that.

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