Genomic approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration

American chestnuts are functionally extinct owing to the widespread impact of chestnut blight. Westbrook et al. evaluated historic and ongoing breeding programs largely aimed at intercrossing susceptible trees with a resistant Asian species (see the Perspective by Strauss and Slavov). The complex genetic architecture of disease resistance means that recurrent selection is likely to be more effective than backcrossing. Additionally, they found that hybrids with around 70% American chestnut ancestry have substantial blight resistance but also show resistance to another problematic disease called root rot. Finally, they used genomic selection to predict pathogen resistance before planting and hybridization, thereby enhancing breeding efficiency. In combination with gene expression analysis, the authors provide a suite of strategies to inform future resistance breeding efforts. —Madeleine Seale

Keywords:

American chestnut

chestnut blight

genomic selection

disease resistance

breeding programs

Genomic approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration

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