Evaluating Chemical Fingerprinting as a Tool to Rapidly Screen Hybrid Chestnut for Disease Resistance

Screening chestnut hybrids for disease resistance is intensive because trees must be inoculated with either Cryphonectria parasitica (causal agent of chestnut blight) or Phytophthora cinnamomi (causal agent of Phytophthora root rot). Chemotyping (i.e. chemically phenotyping or fingerprinting) trees and identifying chemical markers associated with resistance is an alternative method that could be used to screen trees rapidly. The goals of this study are to chemotype American and Chinese chestnut parents and inter-specific hybrids, to identify potential markers of disease resistance, and to develop a method that can be used to prescreen hybrids for resistance prior to planting in seed orchards.