re-introducing American Chestnut

Y'all are so durn funny it hard to feel equal to the task of posting a really funny message. Ach, Norman, my gout is acting up.
Well back to the purpose of my post

There is an interesting, informative and best of all, quick read on the ongoing successful effort to breed a blight-resistant American Chestnut tree on About.com at http://forestry.about.com/cs/treeid/a/achestnut.htm

Was interested because my dads farm had some of the last chestnut trees that I knew of. They just died in the last 5 years. He and my brother in law have planted about 200 more seeds in an attempt to re-introduce them.

Andrea

Andrea,
There are at least two major groups working toward preservation/reintroduction of the American chestnut. ACF seems to get most of the press, and with their introduction of Oriental chestnut germplasm, they may achieve their goal earlier than the other group, the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation (ACCF), which is using only pure American chestnuts, which have shown blight resistance, in their breeding program.

Here's a link to the ACCF site:
http://ipm.ppws.vt.edu/griffin/accf.html

Has anyone tried to isolate the genes for resistance in the Asian species, and introducing them direct into pure C. americana by GM technology?

It would certainly be nice to see GM technology used to benefit the environment, rather than destroy it as in most uses it is put to

Resin

My grandfather had chestnut trees in Ohio. They were great. Think they might grow in Arizona?
linda@mygarden.com

Resin,
At present, no one knows for sure how many gene sequences are involved in conferring blight resistance - at least two are known, and ACF has devised their backcrossing/intercrossing breeding strategy working from a 'worst-case' scenario of there being at least 3 genes involved.

Linda, C.dentata(American chestnut) doesn't particularly like alkaline soils - though there may be 'strain' variation in this trait, as well. Asian chestnuts(C.mollisima, C.crenata, etc.) may be less 'picky' about soil pH. Don't know if rainfall levels in your area (I know nothing about Arizona, other than being able to find it on the map) would support chestnuts - American or Asian. Guess you could check with the ASU Extension folks to see if anyone is growing chestnuts in AZ.
I wouldn't want one(or two or more, which you'd need to get nuts) in my yard - they stink when in bloom, and the spiny burs are a real hazard if you have small kids, or have any desire to walk about barefoot.

The forestry link calls it a fungus. DNA testing has shown that it is the "fungal generation of a..." Taxonomy has changed it again. It was kingom Protista, but now is Kingdom Chromista. They alternate forms. One generation of Cryphonectria acts like a fungus, but the other is an Amoeba, which had previously been an animal.