Deemed as the new Candy Crush, Fraxinus is a free game invented by scientists and computer game experts to help discover the genes which are most likely to exhibit the most resistance to ash dieback.
At present, there is little scientists can do about the disease threatening many of the UK's 80 metre trees, other than monitor its progress. However, laboratories are on the trail of genetic variants among the ash tree population that exhibit resistance to, or tolerance of, the disease. If they can isolate the genes responsible for conferring these qualities, they might be able to cross-breed UK ash trees with resistant or tolerant strains, and so save the widespread populations of ash.
Scientists need to sift through tens of thousands of genes to find those most likely to exhibit resistance. This requires vast amounts of data to be crunched by computer, identifying patterns that could show the DNA sequences most likely to be useful. But this pattern-matching can often be done just as well by people as computers, as it involves the recognition and rejection of patterns that people can quickly see.
Scientists have worked with computer games experts to develop a free app that will encourage people to compare patterns in order to highlight the genetic sequences most likely to be of use. The game, called Fraxinus after the Latin for the ash, Fraxinus excelsior, works as a puzzle, inviting players to score points by matching coloured sequences of leaves on the screen. The best matches score the highest points, and players will be invited to compete to identify the most matches.
"We are at quite an exciting moment," said Jean Webber, of Forest Research, who has advised on the game. "We have the pathogen to deal with, but we have tools at our disposal that we have never had before."
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