The
Darling 58 Debacle
LATE
ONE FRIDAY evening in December 2023, the
American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) issued a
stunning press release announcing the end of a
years-long effort to genetically engineer a
disease-resistant American chestnut tree.
For
years, researchers have been trying to figure
out a way to save the tree, an iconic North
American species that has been devastated by
blight. But the modified trees that the
foundation was experimenting with, dubbed
“Darling 58,” were defective. Their growth was
stunted, they had lost their ability to fight
off disease, and many of them had died. For
proponents of genetic engineering (GE), the news
was a major setback. To those of us who prefer
less extreme measures, however, it was a
reprieve.
Until
the early 1900s, the American chestnut tree was
common across the Eastern United States and was
an important component of the forest ecosystem
that provided food for Indigenous peoples as
well as for wildlife.
Then
disaster hit. The spread of an introduced blight
devastated the species. This prompted dramatic
but failed attempts by scientists, foresters,
and government agencies to try to prevent the
spread of the blight, caused by a foreign fungus
called Cryphonectria parasitica, a native to
East and Southeast Asia that made its way into
Europe and North America in the early 1900s.
These efforts included cutting down countless
American chestnuts, including healthy ones that
might have been able to tolerate the
disease.
Today,
an estimated 4 million American chestnuts still
exist in the forests of the eastern US. Most of
these have sprouted from the stumps of the
felled giants, but some are large survivors that
never succumbed to the disease.
Efforts
are underway to build the population back, but
there are two camps. On one side, anti-GMO
American chestnut restoration enthusiasts are
working to bring the chestnut back naturally.
The other camp, which advocates for GE
interventions, believes in a faster approach.
And it has a lot of backing.
Anne Petermann, co-founder and
executive director of Global Justice
Ecology Project, reports on the lessons
learned from failed attempts to
genetically engineer the American
chestnut. | 
