I have an American Chestnut tree in my yard near the Seattle Metro. We don't have chestnut blight, so we can grow American Chestnut here. Mine has started to grow fruit, but the squirrels steal them all. The few that do fall get eaten up by deer. Apparently by front yard has become a wildlife feeding station.
Great but Oh so slow work, we all hope for success for your venture and thank you! Now our beautiful Beech trees are under threat from a leaf nematode. All these research efforts help all threatened species.
I am planting on our farm some 15 chestnut trees here in the mountains of Creston NC, I have gathered the seedlings from older established trees, hopefully they will take off.
Unfortunately, the American Chestnut foundation just withdrew the Darling transgenic tree from the approval process; they are having too many problems, the transgenic tree is growing more slowly than it should, the blight resistance is disappointing and there was a pollen mix up very early in the program, so the vast majority of trees are actually Darling 54 instead of Darling 58☹️. There is something called a promoter that tells a gene when to turn on. Unfortunately the promoter for the OXO transgenic gene has the gene turned on all the time, so it’s like having your immune system fired up thinking you are sick when you aren’t. Also the resistance trait isn’t being passed on as predicted. There is still hope for a transgenic solution, but they have a lot of work to do!
There are wonderful projects making Japanese and Chinese hybrid American chestnuts they're down to fully resist 75% American chestnuts with nearly all American features,they can get to 87.5% soon and maybe higher without reducing resistance!
You get the bugs worked out on this and deer hunting conservationist will help you spread them, if fhe government could make it easy to get them then i believe alot of people would plant to them just to help give back to mother nature
I see comments with LOTS of people saying they have American chestnuts. Just because it's in America doesn't make it a American chestnut. And if you do have a true American chestnut call a university and let them have some seeds.
Grew up in house that used to be in farmer’s orchard. Chestnut tree was compact n just gorgeous. And that’s saying skit, considering out lot included Dutch elm, black walnut, apple, and assorted varieties of pine trees. Sadly, subsequent owners cut down that lively, unique chestnut tree…
The American Chestnut was called the redwood of the East. They could live 700 years or more and were huge trees though not anywhere near as tall as a redwood.
In Europe, they only have 6 strains of the blight, while in Canada and the States we have around 200 strains of the blight. In Europe, because of the limited strains of blight they have had good success with something called hypovirulence ; that’s where you introduce a virus that attacks the organism that causes the blight, reducing it’s ability to damage the trees. We have tried hypovirulence in North America but only with limited success. If you tried growing a European chestnut in North America it would likely succumb to the blight.
@@WhatWeDoChannel It's a good thing the European strains wouldn't survive, I don't think we want non-native species in our forests, only 100% pure American chestnuts. Nothing compares to the majestic American tree.
Unfortunately, the darling 58 which is now the Darling 54/58 has been a disappointment and will not be distributed. The Chestnut tree foundation has announced that they are withdrawing their application for approval. All is not lost but test results and further research has shown that the 54/58 is not the tree that we would hope it would be, and it has several problems as it matures.
JoanHuffman2166 - here is my understanding of the problem and what happened. The transgenic project originated with the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) about ten years ago. They were supported by The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) which was, and still is, pursuing the backcross method for about forty years with limited success. ESF had discovered that the Oxalate Oxide (OxO) gene from wheat detoxifies the Oxalic acid that is in the blight fungus that caused the death of the American Chestnut. The ESF plan was to introduce that OxO gene into the Darling 58 American Chestnut gene sequence thus prompting the regulatory reviews by the USDA, US Forest Service, and EPA. It was recently discovered that a mistake was made right at the beginning: years ago when pollen from the Darling 54 tree was used instead of from the Darling 58 tree. Also the OxO gene became attached to the wrong gene in the American Chestnut gene sequence and the side effect seems to be lesions on some tree leaves. The biggest problem seems to be is when the OxO gene is activated. Associated with the genes are activators called promoters and the ESF project used a promoter from cauliflower to activate the OxO. Think of these promoters as a light switch on the wall of a room and the OxO gene is the light bulb. The cauliflower promoter was telling the OxO gene to always be ON, and on full blast, not only as much as needed. In essence it was always fighting Oxalic acid infection even if it wasn't present. This infection fighting is like when you have a fever you are draining energy from your body, but if the infection is mild you might only have a minor cold and respond accordingly. Also, once the Oxalic acid was neutralized the OxO gene should turn off, but it wasn't doing so. The promoter should be like a motion sensor dimmer light switch that automatically turns on and off, not an always-on bright light switch. Because of the energy drain these transgenic American Chestnuts were growing much slower and shorter than natural trees, and producing fewer nuts. Also it appears that the tree senses the energy drain and somehow works to stop this offending gene to be passed to the next generation of trees. It was expected that if the OxO gene was benign and both tree parents (male and female) had this gene then about 50% of the offspring would have the OxO gene. It now appears that only 2% of the offspring are getting the OxO gene. So the next step is likely to be find another 'promoter' that works more like a motion sensor dimmer switch: only when needed and as much as needed. Other promoters such as this do exist and now the challenge is to find the right one but that is likely to takes years of lab and field testing. So this process is likely to delay having an American Chestnut that can fight the blight yet grow to full size until the 2030's. Thus on December 15, 2023 the TACF has halted work on the Darling 58 project but ESF has not made an announcement.
@@joanhuffman2166 After watching the last Chestnut Chat, my take away..."in a nutshell"...Was that, first off, someone very early on grabbed #54 pollen instead of #58 so almost all of the Darling 58 is actually 54. But beyond that. The oxalate gene they used is always on which...saps... energy from the tree which makes it under-perform for the restoration goals that were hoped for. p.s. the puns were intended 😉
I really really didn't like that you were using genetic engineering for this, and now the failure of Darling 58 should be a warning: there is no easy fix for this. The chestnut trees will have to either be bred for restoration, or waited out until they come back naturally.
I have an American Chestnut tree in my yard near the Seattle Metro. We don't have chestnut blight, so we can grow American Chestnut here. Mine has started to grow fruit, but the squirrels steal them all. The few that do fall get eaten up by deer. Apparently by front yard has become a wildlife feeding station.
Great but Oh so slow work, we all hope for success for your venture and thank you! Now our beautiful Beech trees are under threat from a leaf nematode. All these research efforts help all threatened species.
I am planting on our farm some 15 chestnut trees here in the mountains of Creston NC, I have gathered the seedlings from older established trees, hopefully they will take off.
Sounds great!
I have four seedlings from an old tree but have to wait until they are old enough to fruit to see which tree they actually are.
Thanks, and outstanding work,
Thank you too!
I have 117 acres in southwest Virginia, half of it is virgin never timbered. I would love to help.
Unfortunately, the American Chestnut foundation just withdrew the Darling transgenic tree from the approval process; they are having too many problems, the transgenic tree is growing more slowly than it should, the blight resistance is disappointing and there was a pollen mix up very early in the program, so the vast majority of trees are actually Darling 54 instead of Darling 58☹️. There is something called a promoter that tells a gene when to turn on. Unfortunately the promoter for the OXO transgenic gene has the gene turned on all the time, so it’s like having your immune system fired up thinking you are sick when you aren’t. Also the resistance trait isn’t being passed on as predicted. There is still hope for a transgenic solution, but they have a lot of work to do!
You’re comment has more info than my comment
Wonderful News!
I'm so happy!
SAY NO TO GMO!!!!
GMO's are poison!
There are wonderful projects making Japanese and Chinese hybrid American chestnuts they're down to fully resist 75% American chestnuts with nearly all American features,they can get to 87.5% soon and maybe higher without reducing resistance!
You get the bugs worked out on this and deer hunting conservationist will help you spread them, if fhe government could make it easy to get them then i believe alot of people would plant to them just to help give back to mother nature
GOD willing some day they will find away to restore that tree
The state should play these on management areas where they’ve clear cut everything tn Catoosa management area Tenn clear cut. ❤
I see comments with LOTS of people saying they have American chestnuts. Just because it's in America doesn't make it a American chestnut. And if you do have a true American chestnut call a university and let them have some seeds.
Planning on it
Grew up in house that used to be in farmer’s orchard. Chestnut tree was compact n just gorgeous. And that’s saying skit, considering out lot included Dutch elm, black walnut, apple, and assorted varieties of pine trees. Sadly, subsequent owners cut down that lively, unique chestnut tree…
At 3:06 isn't that a redwood?
The American Chestnut was called the redwood of the East. They could live 700 years or more and were huge trees though not anywhere near as tall as a redwood.
Are European Chestnut varieties (Turkey, Italian, Spanish) blight resistant?
In Europe, they only have 6 strains of the blight, while in Canada and the States we have around 200 strains of the blight. In Europe, because of the limited strains of blight they have had good success with something called hypovirulence ; that’s where you introduce a virus that attacks the organism that causes the blight, reducing it’s ability to damage the trees. We have tried hypovirulence in North America but only with limited success. If you tried growing a European chestnut in North America it would likely succumb to the blight.
@@WhatWeDoChannel It's a good thing the European strains wouldn't survive, I don't think we want non-native species in our forests, only 100% pure American chestnuts. Nothing compares to the majestic American tree.
@@WhatWeDoChannel Hypovirulence.
Unfortunately, the darling 58 which is now the Darling 54/58 has been a disappointment and will not be distributed. The Chestnut tree foundation has announced that they are withdrawing their application for approval. All is not lost but test results and further research has shown that the 54/58 is not the tree that we would hope it would be, and it has several problems as it matures.
Thank you for your in-depth comment, we wish your organization the best!
Depressing news.
Don't leave it there. What are the problems with the tree?
JoanHuffman2166 - here is my understanding of the problem and what happened. The transgenic project originated with the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) about ten years ago. They were supported by The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) which was, and still is, pursuing the backcross method for about forty years with limited success. ESF had discovered that the Oxalate Oxide (OxO) gene from wheat detoxifies the Oxalic acid that is in the blight fungus that caused the death of the American Chestnut. The ESF plan was to introduce that OxO gene into the Darling 58 American Chestnut gene sequence thus prompting the regulatory reviews by the USDA, US Forest Service, and EPA. It was recently discovered that a mistake was made right at the beginning: years ago when pollen from the Darling 54 tree was used instead of from the Darling 58 tree. Also the OxO gene became attached to the wrong gene in the American Chestnut gene sequence and the side effect seems to be lesions on some tree leaves. The biggest problem seems to be is when the OxO gene is activated. Associated with the genes are activators called promoters and the ESF project used a promoter from cauliflower to activate the OxO. Think of these promoters as a light switch on the wall of a room and the OxO gene is the light bulb. The cauliflower promoter was telling the OxO gene to always be ON, and on full blast, not only as much as needed. In essence it was always fighting Oxalic acid infection even if it wasn't present. This infection fighting is like when you have a fever you are draining energy from your body, but if the infection is mild you might only have a minor cold and respond accordingly. Also, once the Oxalic acid was neutralized the OxO gene should turn off, but it wasn't doing so. The promoter should be like a motion sensor dimmer light switch that automatically turns on and off, not an always-on bright light switch. Because of the energy drain these transgenic American Chestnuts were growing much slower and shorter than natural trees, and producing fewer nuts. Also it appears that the tree senses the energy drain and somehow works to stop this offending gene to be passed to the next generation of trees. It was expected that if the OxO gene was benign and both tree parents (male and female) had this gene then about 50% of the offspring would have the OxO gene. It now appears that only 2% of the offspring are getting the OxO gene. So the next step is likely to be find another 'promoter' that works more like a motion sensor dimmer switch: only when needed and as much as needed. Other promoters such as this do exist and now the challenge is to find the right one but that is likely to takes years of lab and field testing. So this process is likely to delay having an American Chestnut that can fight the blight yet grow to full size until the 2030's. Thus on December 15, 2023 the TACF has halted work on the Darling 58 project but ESF has not made an announcement.
@@joanhuffman2166 After watching the last Chestnut Chat, my take away..."in a nutshell"...Was that, first off, someone very early on grabbed #54 pollen instead of #58 so almost all of the Darling 58 is actually 54. But beyond that. The oxalate gene they used is always on which...saps... energy from the tree which makes it under-perform for the restoration goals that were hoped for. p.s. the puns were intended 😉
Catkins 😼
Game needs food source
if you are using gmo or pollen from a different species your not restoring the American chestnut you are creating a hybrid
Plant plant plant
No GMO!
This should be illegal in the open air!
I really really didn't like that you were using genetic engineering for this, and now the failure of Darling 58 should be a warning: there is no easy fix for this. The chestnut trees will have to either be bred for restoration, or waited out until they come back naturally.