ABSTRACT
Over a century after two introduced pathogens decimated American chestnut populations, breeding programs continue to incorporate resistance from Chinese chestnut to recover self-sustaining populations. Due to complex genetics of chestnut blight resistance, it is challenging to obtain trees with sufficient resistance and competitive growth. We developed high quality reference genomes for Chinese and American chestnut and leveraged large disease phenotype and genotype datasets to develop accurate genomic selection. Inoculation and simulation results indicate that resistance may be substantially increased in trees that inherited 70% to 100% of their genome from American chestnut. To facilitate gene editing, we integrated multiple lines of evidence to discover candidate alleles for blight resistance and susceptibility. These genomic resources provide a strong foundation to accelerate restoration of this iconic tree.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Data and materials availability
Data, results, and R scripts are deposited in Dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4xgxd25mj. Raw genomic and RNA sequence data used to develop reference genomes can be accessed via NCBI bioproject PRJNA1147634. Chestnut reference genomes are accessible on Phytozome. Raw fastq from files from genotyping-by-sequencing can be accessed through NCBI under bioproject PRJNA507748.
