The once-extinct aurochs may soon roam Europe again
I hope they are able to bring back the American Chestnut too.That tree isn't completely dead -- some stumps and shoots remain -- but adult trees never survive, due to a fungus that didn't used to exist in North America.There are now two programs to bring it back. One, by hybridizing with Japanese Chestnut and breeding to (hopefully) keep not much more than the Japanese tree's blight resistance. And another -- more controversially but maybe actually better -- that adds to the American Chestnut genome a single gene, from wheat, that confers resistance to the fungus. These latter trees would be even more like the originals.The hybrid program has some test sites now in the wild. The GMO version has not been approved, but I hope it will be.