Final Thesis Defense Plant Pathology M.S. Degree: Dylan Warner
November 13, 2025 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Members of the Examining Committee and their Department:
- Dr. Gregory Bonito-Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
- Dr. Timothy Miles-Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
- Dr. Guo-Qing Song-Department of Horticulture
ABSTRACT
Chestnut blight, causal agent Cryphonectria parasitica, has devastated American chestnut populations, leading to major ecological and economic losses. Micropropagation enables the production of genetically uniform clones, ideal for controlled testing of disease resistance and fungal interactions. We assessed chestnut blight tolerance in four European (Castanea sativa) and Japanese (C. crenata) hybrid cultivars—Marsol, Maraval, Marigoule, and Précoce Migoule—using stem, and cambium assays from greenhouse and infield materials, employing strains of Cryphonectria with varying virulence. Resistance varied among the assays and cultivars with Marigoule showing the most resistance infield, supporting the selection of promising lines. Testing PTC-derived chestnuts in greenhouse settings with multiple assays offers a faster, more standardized approach than field trials, potentially accelerating resistance screening.
This research also demonstrates that micropropagated (MP) chestnuts are highly suitable for integration into fungal agroforestry systems, with strong potential for dual nut–truffle cropping for added economic value. We successfully established ectomycorrhizal associations between MP chestnuts and several Tuber species, including T. lyonii, and T. borchii. Notably, this is the first description of T. lyoniimycorrhizas on chestnut hybrids of Castanea crenata and C. sativa. While both mycelial and spore-based inoculations were tested, only spore inoculations consistently produced colonization, and these resulted in high levels of mycorrhization across tested cultivars. These findings convey a method for generating blight-resistant chestnuts and pairing them with truffle fungi to create scalable, sustainable, and high-value agroforestry systems that can restore chestnuts to their historic range and support new economic opportunities.
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