Big elms from little cells grow?Big elms from little cells grow? Forcing nature to do the unnatural may save groves ofAmerican elms from devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. Dutch elm disease Dutch elm disease: see diseases of plants; elm. Dutch elm disease Widespread disease that kills elms, caused by the fungus Ceratocystis ulmi. It was first identified in the U.S. . Subhash C. Domir, with the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service in Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Delaware CountyGR6. The municipality is located near the center of the state of Ohio, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Columbus, Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808, incorporated in 1816. , has succeeded in growing Pioneer elm trees from protoplasts (single cells with their walls removed.) The Pioneer elm is a new Eruopean-Asian hybrid that is resistant to Dutch elm disease. Domir plans to fuse protoplasts from the Pioneer elm and themore susceptible American elm, in a procedure that would combine the genes of two species that would not breed by normal means. The process of growing takes four to six months to produce atiny elm plant with roots. But results have been promising: The four Pioneer elm trees, now about three feet tall, may be the first woody plants grown using the protoplast protoplast /pro·to·plast/ (-plast) a bacterial or plant cell deprived of its rigid wall but with its plasma membrane intact; the cell is dependent for its integrity on an isotonic or hypertonic medium. method, according to the January AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH. |
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