![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ash-dieback-in-Marden-Pack-woodland-credit-SWNS-1024x683.jpg\")
Ash dieback in Marden Park woodland \u2013 credit, SWNS<\/p>\n Ash dieback in Marden Park woodland \u2013 credit, SWNS<\/p>\n
To use what will become a timeless adage, one of the most amazing things about life is how it, uh, finds a way\u2014as seen lately in England where ash trees are spontaneously developing resistance to a deadly disease.<\/p>\n
Natural selection in woodlands is acting to combat the disease ash dieback\u2014caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus that has devastated ash trees across Europe, say scientists.<\/p>\n
Arriving on Britain in 2012, it has killed millions of trees<\/a>, but a new study conducted by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) found that a new generation of ash trees, growing naturally in woodland, exhibits greater resistance to the disease compared to older trees.<\/p>\n Natural selection is acting upon thousands of locations within the ash tree DNA, driving the evolution of resistance as the seedlings grow up through the leaf litter where\u00a0H. fraxineous\u00a0reproduces.<\/p>\n The team says its findings, published in the journal Science, offer renewed hope for the future of ash trees on the British Isles, as previous predictions estimated that up to 85% of ash trees would succumb to the disease.<\/p>\n The new study<\/a> compared the DNA of ash trees established before and after the fungal invasion and found \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d for a long-standing prediction of Darwinian theory.<\/p>\n \u201cA tragedy for the trees has been a revelation for scientists: allowing us to show that thousands of genes are contributing to the ash trees\u2019 fightback against the fungus,\u201d said Richard Nichols, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at QMUL.<\/p>\n \u201cOur detection of so many small genetic effects was possible because of the exceptional combination of circumstances: the sudden arrival of such a severe disease and the hundreds of offspring produced by a mature tree.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, the research team observed subtle shifts in the frequencies of DNA variants associated with tree health across thousands of locations in the genome. They say the shifts indicate that the younger generation possesses greater resistance than their predecessors.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an example of a phenomenon pertaining to natural selection but that has been difficult to prove: namely that trait selection can be driven by many small changes, rather than one or two obvious ones, and that this manifests as small changes in thousands of genes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are so glad that these findings suggest that ash will not go the way of the elm in Britain,\u201d said Professor Richard Buggs, of the Royal Botanic Gardens and QMUL. \u201cElm trees have struggled to evolve to Dutch elm disease, but ash are showing a very different dynamic because they produce an abundance of seedlings upon which natural selection can act when they are still young.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThrough the death of millions of ash trees, a more resistant population of ash is appearing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ash-dieback-in-Marden-Pack-woodland-credit-SWNS-2-1024x683.jpg\")
Ash dieback in Marden Park woodland \u2013 credit, SWNS<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/A-mighty-ash-tree-on-Peacock-Lonning-Cumbia-credit-Rose-and-Trev-Clough-licensed-for-reuse-CC-2.0-10.jpeg\")
A mighty ash tree on Peacock Lonning, Cumbia \u2013 credit, Rose and Trev Clough licensed for reuse, CC 2.0.<\/p>\n