Population structure and natural selection in the Chalara ash dieback fungus, Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus

Led by Professor James Brown, John Innes Centre

james.brown@jic.ac.uk

Ash dieback (ADB), a devastating disease responsible for destroying vast numbers of ash trees in continental Europe and Scandinavia, is on the move. Caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus, the disease was first identified in the UK in 2012 and has since been found at hundreds of sites throughout Britain and Ireland. It is likely that resistance to ash dieback will evolve in the UK ash population over time through natural selection. This poses an important challenge for forest scientists: to accelerate this process so that the UK’s ash population can recover much more rapidly.

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