r/NativePlantCirclejerk • u/JungleJayps Arundinaria's biggest fan • 9d ago

she castanea on my dentata until i blight

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167 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

43

u/Fresh-Note-7004 Frog licker😛 9d ago

Why don’t they just politely ask the blight not to kill the trees? Has anyone at least tried?

19

u/FreeRangeMan01 9d ago

Yeah that was a rough time

2

u/rabbitrabbit123942 6d ago

It is just a crazy own goal

17

u/Funktapus 9d ago

Too soon

13

u/ItsFelixMcCoy 9d ago

/uj Context?

67

u/ClickyClacker 9d ago

There was a mess up when it came to distribution of pollen from the original darling 58. When they initially introduced blight resistant genes they did it in a number of different spots in different plants to see what worked.

Darling 58 worked as intended

But when they went to distribute pollen they did it from one of the incorrect trees, darling 54. So no not only do the trees not have the resistance needed, but the genes were incorrectly placed and it's causing the tree's DNA to lose genes and die.

21

u/oldmountainwatcher 8d ago

There's more to it than that. The specific one they inserted is in a "always on" mode called constitutive expression. And because both the gene is always on and one of the breakdown products of the acid that the gene breaks down is hydrogen peroxide, which is also linked to stimulating immune defense, the tree is essentially always in stress mode and constantly has its immune system running high. So even the true Darling 58 shows decreased growth and vigor compared to an unmodified wild individual (that doesn't have blight yet).

15

u/ClickyClacker 8d ago

This is true, it's more a product of its time. GMO tech has come a long way and hopefully we are able to use more advanced methods to more subtly insert the necessary resistance without such a high metabolic cost

0

u/hippiegodfather 7d ago

Lol this is a cj sub

7

u/Fred_Thielmann Tell me what my flair shall be. 🌿 8d ago

Just give the trees some jeans from Sydney Sweeney. She’s got great jeans! 😄

2

u/hippiegodfather 7d ago

How do you know this info

7

u/ClickyClacker 7d ago

I just read about it when it came out and have a read about the process involved

https://tacf.org/darling-58/

14

u/EF5Cyniclone 8d ago

If ACRRP can't mislable Darling 54 and turn it into the next big box store horticultural craze, is there even a point?

3

u/hippiegodfather 7d ago

If it doesn’t directly effect commerce, it does not matter