The white pines have high ecologic , economic, and aesthetic value. WPBR has reached epidemic proportions and is predicted to have catastrophic ecological consequences. In North America, WPBR has caused more damage than any other conifer disease, resulting in losses of millions of dollars, reducing the genetic base of white pine species, and adversely affecting dependent wildlife. Attempts to control WPBR with chemicals or by eradicating alternate hosts have been abandoned as impractical and ineffective.
Resistant trees exhibit a classic hypersensitivity response .
We are engaged in two lines of research aimed at cloning the R gene. The other is to construct finer maps of the R gene region.