The application of genetic engineering to food crops is controversial, and rightly so. In response, the genetic engineers were able to insert into the American chestnut genome a single gene, taken from wheat, which did endow the tree with blight resistance; the genetically engineered trees still contract the blight, but it is no longer harmful to them. By interbreeding these with the genetically engineered specimens, it is planned to create a genetically diverse but blight-resistant population that can, over time, return this keystone species to our woods