Can genetic cloning resurrect the American elm?

The American elm tree (Ulmus americana), is one of the quintessential native shade trees of eastern North America. Along the Eastern sea board and west to the Mississippi, elm and chestnut trees formed enormous shady stands in town squares, parks, and front yards. But then, of course, along came the invasive pathogen Dutch Elm Disease in the 1930s which pretty much wiped out the elms; and chestnut blight took out the chestnuts. Very little natural resistance to Dutch Elm Disease has been found in surviving native populations of American elms and now the emphasis has shifted to finding a possible solution by cloning resistant cultivars and identifying the genetic basis of disease resistance.

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