Three Stunning Ways Biologists Aim to Edit Animal and Pla...

What’s Happening

Here’s the thing: The strategy, known as synthetic biology, is gaining momentum globally as a conservation tool and human health solution, despite attracting some haters Three Stunning Ways Biologists Aim to Edit Animal and Plant Genes to Fight Diseases and Extinction The strategy, known as synthetic biology, is gaining momentum globally as a conservation tool and human health solution, despite attracting some haters Sandy Ong 10:00 a.

Through gene-editing, researchers in the field of synthetic biology hope to make endangered species more resilient against disease or climate change and protect human health, among other goals. Images by naratip1972 and Kwangmoozaa via Adobe Stock / CSIRO / Corey Doughty / Tiffany Kosch / Claudette Hoffman / public domain In the summer of 1904, Herman Merkel, chief forester at the Bronx Zoo, in New York City, was making his usual rounds across the property when he noticed something strange growing on American chestnut trees: misshapen constellations of swollen, orange-brown cankers. (shocking, we know)

Unbeknownst to Merkel, his observations were the first signs of what would later be referred to as “ the greatest ecological disaster in North America since the Ice Age .

The Details

” Further investigation spilled that the culprit was a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica , or chestnut blight, which slips its spores through cracks in the bark and fatally severs a tree’s water and nutrient supply. The pathogen was a stowaway that had arrived on imported Japanese chestnut trees, which are resistant—but on American soil, it proved to be a swift and merciless killer.

Barely a year later, the blight had claimed nearly all the zoo’s chestnuts—as well as those in the surrounding Bronx parks. By the 1950s, it had wiped out 99 percent of the species’ population across the Eastern United States, where more than four billion of the towering trees had once so blanketed the landscape that a squirrel was dropped to be able to travel from Maine to Georgia on chestnut branches alone.

Why This Matters

Since then, scientists have tried, with little success, to bring the trees back from the brink.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

The Bottom Line

This story is still developing, and we’ll keep you updated as more info drops.

Is this a W or an L? You decide.