Data from: Genomic approaches to accelerate American chestnut restoration

Over a century after two introduced pathogens killed billions of American
chestnuts, introgression of pre-adapted resistance alleles from Chinese
chestnuts has contributed to recovering of self-sustaining populations.
However, progress has been slow because of the complex genetic
architecture of resistance. To better understand blight resistance, we
compared reference genomes, gene expression responses, and stem metabolite
profiles of the resistant Chinese and susceptible American chestnut
species. To accelerate resistance breeding, we conducted large-scale
phenotyping and genotyping in hybrids of these species. Simulation and
inoculation experiments suggest that significant resistance gains are
possible through selectively breeding trees with an average of 70% to 85%
American chestnut ancestry. The resources developed here are foundational
for breeding to create diverse restoration populations with sufficient
disease resistance and competitive growth.

在两种外来病原菌致使数十亿株美洲栗死亡的一个多世纪后，从中国栗中导入预适应的抗性等位基因（resistance alleles），已推动自维持种群的恢复进程。然而，由于抗性性状的复杂遗传架构（genetic architecture），相关育种进展仍较为缓慢。为更深入解析栗疫抗性（blight resistance），本研究对具有抗性的中国栗与易感病的美洲栗的参考基因组（reference genomes）、基因表达响应（gene expression responses）及茎部代谢物谱（stem metabolite profiles）开展了比较分析。为加速抗性育种工作，本研究对该类物种的杂交群体实施了大规模表型鉴定（phenotyping）与基因分型（genotyping）实验。模拟实验与接种实验结果显示，通过选育平均携带有70%至85%美洲栗遗传背景的个体，可实现抗性水平的显著提升。本研究构建的各类研究资源，可为培育兼具充足病害抗性与竞争生长能力的多样化恢复种群奠定核心基础。