08/30/2022

Gene Editing Could Revive a Nearly Lost Tree

Not everyone is on board

Kyra LoPiccolo crouched in front of a small, white foam box under the hot summer sun. She opened the cooler and from the ice plucked a tiny vial of pollen — a potential salve for an entire species.

Clasping a branch of a two-story American chestnut, LoPiccolo pulled out a delicate, yellow-dusted glass slide and rubbed the thawed pollen onto some of the tree’s flowers. A few feet away and armed with another set of vials, a pair of colleagues at this field research station were aloft in a crane working on higher limbs.

The team gloves the fingerlike flowers with white bags and zip-ties them — an effort to control the flow of pollen. In a few months, genetically modified chestnuts will be ready for harvest.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.