Elm Tree Research Featured on CBC
May 22, 2012 - In the News
University of Guelph research that involves cloning elm trees that are resistant to Dutch elm disease is making headlines. A story about the breakthrough appeared on CBC’s online news site this weekend and a TV news report aired on CBC’s The National Wednesday. (Read the story and watch the TV news clip here)
A research team led by Praveen Saxena and Alan Sullivan in Guelph’s Department of Plant Agriculture has found a way to successfully clone American elm trees that have survived repeated epidemics of their biggest killer. More than 95 per cent of the population in Eastern Canada and the United States has now been wiped out by Dutch elm disease.
It is the first known research to use of in vitro culture technology to clone buds of mature American elm trees. The study also involved Guelph post-doctoral researchers Mukund Shukla and Maxwell Jones; Chunzhao Liu, professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing; and Susan Gosling of the Gosling Foundation, which funded the project. Read more
U of G recently announced the establishment of the Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation (GRIPP). Here scientists will hone cutting-edge technologies to protect and conserve the world’s endangered plant species.
