Dutch Elm disease and resistance

Interesting article in the NY Times about work being done with disease resistant Elm trees. bq. More than 70 springs have come and gone since the first victims succumbed, but grieving friends and brokenhearted lovers have never stopped searching for survivors of one of the worst ecological calamities in American history. bq. They stalk damp backwoods and prowl deserted country roads looking for rare American elm trees that have somehow managed to ward off Dutch elm disease, which spread in successive waves across much of the country beginning in the 1930's, killing more than 77 million elms in the biological blink of an eye. And the tree itself: bq. Mr. Holloway believes � and others have confirmed � that this hardy survivor in Princeton Cemetery is the progenitor of a whole generation of disease-tolerant elms that growers have been shipping around the country for the last few years. His thesis is supported by tests conducted a few years ago that show that a significant sequence of the Princeton giant's DNA is an exact match with the trees planted along the entrance to Princeton. bq. "Long story short," said Joseph C. Kamalay, a molecular biologist at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo., who performed the genetic sleuthing several years ago when he worked for the United States Forest Service, "the cemetery tree was likely the maternal parent of the Princeton elm, at least in the lineage, because their chloroplast DNA is identical." This would be wonderful - the Elm is a beautiful tree and it would be nice to get them back again.