Supporting the Fight Against Ash Dieback

Professor Richard Buggs and his team discovered genetic variation that makes some ash trees resistant to the disease supporting the use of selective breeding to mitigate the disease’s impact.

In 2012, a deadly new fungal disease targeting the ash tree arrived in Britain. Since then, ash dieback disease has killed millions of trees, with a predicted cost to the UK economy of GBP15,000,000,000. Combatting ash dieback is a priority for the UK government, and in ground-breaking genetic analysis, Buggs’ group at Queen Mary University of London discovered how some ash trees are resistant to the disease. Buggs’ research shows how selective breeding of naturally selected resistant trees can mitigate the impact of the disease.

This approach, set out by Prof Buggs, has been adopted into UK government policy in Defra. The genetic markers identified by Buggs have also been included in the design of a new custom genotyping array produced by Thermo Fisher Scientific, helping to fight the disease in the UK and across Europe by effectively screening for these resistance markers.

See further information on this research supporting the fight against ash dieback: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/research/featured-research/genetic-resistance-brings-hope-for-ash-trees/

Photograph of an ash tree displaying signs of 'dieback'