Background on American chestnut and chestnut blight	Tissue culture and transformation of American chestnut	The search for blight resistance enhancing genes

The American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project

• Restoration of the American Chestnut Tree
  VIDEO: Dr. William Powell discusses the progress made in developing a blight-resistant strain of the American Chestnut tree.
• Annual Meeting of the New York State Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation

The mission of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Center is to conduct basic and applied research that will lead to the development of a blight-resistant American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata). Our goal is to reintroduce a population of these resistant trees back into forest ecosystems of New York and then the rest of the eastern United States.

The project has evolved from basic research into a multifaceted endeavor which includes such areas as the identification of plant pathogen resistance-enhancing genes, the development of American chestnut tissue culture, field testing chestnut trees from tissue culture, public participation through the identification of rare remnant survival chestnut trees, collection and exchange of viable nuts and the establishment of large restoration plantations throughout New York State.

Ongoing activities include basic research on various single and pyramided resistance-enhancing gene designs, identification of genes associated with Asian chestnut resistance, chestnut tissue culture and gene transfer into American chestnut trees, determination of the genetic diversity in surviving remnant chestnut populations, greenhouse and field testing of putative resistant transgenic trees, the collection of rare chestnut germplasm, and the establishment of germplasm archives throughout New York.

The concepts, techniques, and gene cassettes we are developing for American chestnut will also have broad applicability in managing diseases affecting the productivity of other important tree species such as Dutch-elm disease and elm yellows (which devastated another American heritage tree, the American elm, Ulmus americana) and Septoria leaf spot and canker disease of hybrid poplar (which is becoming a key biomass tree species).

Transgenic American Chestnut Planting at the New York Botanical Garden

Additional Reading

• The Bur Newsletter (published by the New York chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation)
• Hardwood Matters (National Hardwood Lumbar Association Magazine, page 20)
• Polin L.D., H. Liang, R. Rothrock, M. Nishii, D. Diehl, A. Newhouse, C.J. Nairn, W. A. Powell, and C.A. Maynard.  2006. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of American chestnut (Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.) somatic embryos. Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture. 84: 69-79
• Powell, W.A., C.A. Maynard, B. Boyle, and A. Seguin. (2006).  Fungal and bacterial resistance in transgenic trees.  Pages 235-252. In: M. Fladung and D. Ewald, Eds., Tree Transgenics, Recent Developments.  Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, Germany. 357p
• Welch, A.J., C.A. Maynard, A.J. Stipanovic, and W.A. Powell. 2007. The effects of oxalic acid on transgenic Castanea dentata callus tissue expressing oxalate oxidase. Plant Science 172:488-496
• Dr. Powell's publications
• Dr. Maynard's publications

How You Can Help

Join the New York Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation at http://www.acf.org/Chapters_ny.php or your local state chapter.

To make a direct donation to the "American Chestnut fund" to help support this research, please contact:

ESF Development Office
214 Bray Hall
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210
315-470-6683
gifts@esf.edu

• Past and current funding for The American Chestnut Research and Restoration Program