Category: Genetics

Cytogenetics and the Fate of Trees

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
  Nurul Islam-Faridi, research geneticist with the Southern Research Station (SRS) Forest Tree Molecular Cytogenetics Laboratory on the Texas A&M campus at College Station, TX, and adjunct professor in the university’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, is one of a handful of scientists in the world who can literally count the chromosomes inside the living cells of any…  More 

New Tools to Bring Back the American Chestnut

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
It’s been a long time now since American chestnut trees dominated the forest canopies of the East, so long that there are few people alive who remember stands with trees nearly the size of redwoods or the pungent smell of chestnuts in bloom that filled the forests before the blight came. It’s taken almost 30…  More 

Saving the Genetic Treasures of Southern Forests

by Sarah Farmer, Science Delivery Group  • 
People have saved seeds since the dawn of agriculture, but scientists at the Southern Research Station (SRS) are doing something new–combining modern genetics and the silvicultural strategy of seed orchards to preserve the genetic heritage of the South’s most at risk- and most ecologically important trees. Trees across the Southeast face exotic pests, shrinking ranges and…  More