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Is there an elm that is already resistant to the beetle? Because if not, they have nothing to start from.
by metalliqaz 9y ago
Is there an elm that is already resistant to the beetle? Because if not, they have nothing to start from.
- mark-r 9y agoThey're starting with trees that have survived somehow. It's hard to know if those trees survived due to fungus resistance or beetle resistance or just plain luck.
- eesmith 9y agoWe know their offspring are (sometimes) resistant to the fungus. From the article: > When the tiny elms reach 1 inch in diameter, the injections begin—every single sapling gets a shot of the two strains of DED. “That is the moment of truth,” says Marks. “We can tell in a couple of weeks whether they will be disease resistant. Since they have a higher success rate than elm trees in the wild, we can infer that their parent trees were likely resistant to the fungus.