BIG NEWS! We’ve found that ash trees are fighting back against ash dieback disease! 🌳💪 Scientists at Kew and Queen Mary University of London have discovered that ash populations are evolving resistance to this devastating fungus - and fast. It’s a rare glimmer of hope for one of Britain’s most iconic trees, with up to 85% lost to the disease in some areas of the UK and Europe. Ash trees are financially, environmentally and culturally important, with their value to the UK economy estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds each year. This is also a breakthrough in evolutionary biology. We found the clearest evidence yet of polygenic microevolution – involving shifts across thousands of locations within the genome – supporting a theory first proposed over 100 years ago. Nature is adapting. And now, with breeding programmes and further genetic research, we can help it along. Read the full story and discover the surprising reasons why this is happening 👉 ow.ly/Ujt450WgGQ0 Find the paper in @ScienceMagazine here: science.org/doi/10.1126/scie… Here, I highlight the key findings 👇 @QMUL @DefraGovUK