American chestnut trees have been decimated by chestnut blight
, a fungal disease likely introduced to the United States a century ago by trees arriving from Asia. Chinese chestnut trees, however, seem to be less vulnerable to the blight. Researchers hope that by sequencing the Chinese chestnut genome
, they may be able to identify genes that confer resistance to the blight. If they do, growers could use selective breeding or gene transfer to create American chestnut trees that would be more likely to survive the fungal onslaught.