Castanea dentata (Marshall)Borkh.

AMERICAN CHESTNUT

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After detection of the Asian ascomycete Cryphonectria parasitica (chestnut blight) in the Bronx Zoo in 1904, in the following decades Castanea dentata was virtually lost from forests of eastern USA. Attempts to confer resistance to the fungus have utilized hybrids with Castanea mollisima backcrossed to C. dentata or inserting genes directly into C. dentata (esp. oxalate oxidase). Another pathogen, the oomycete Phytopthora cinnamomi, is also problematic for C. dentata (Steiner et al. 2016).

Native