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The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was a keystone tree species in the eastern U.S., once found in the forest overstory from Maine to Georgia. The loss of the "mighty giant" to chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), a fungal disease accidentally imported from Asia in the early 1900s, reduced the once dominant chestnuts to remnant understory sprouts. After eight years of field testing, USDA Forest Service research forester Stacy Clark and her colleagues evaluated blight resistance and survival of the backcross-generation American chestnut seedlings, known as BC3F3. Their results were published in Forest Ecology and Management.

USDA NIFA research investment in Texas A&M AgriLife leads to breakthrough in fighting agricultural plant diseases. Researchers have made a discovery that will help combat fastidious pathogens, which cost U.S. agriculture alone billions of dollars annually.