New Facebook game aims to help fight ash dieback

The game is designed to build a picture scientists can use to understand the origin of the ash, to help find the best solution to save ash trees

10:52 15 August 2013

Scientists are making use of social media and are asking people for help to fight ash dieback by simply playing a computer game.

This game is designed to analyse the genetic data of the disease – such information can then help scientists find the best solutions to save the ash trees.

Dr Joan Webber, head of the tree health research group, said: "The game itself is really helping with building our picture of what the genome is of ash.”

"And the reason we want to have more information about that is simply looking for resistance - looking for resistant individuals or the genes around resistance to Chalara in our ash trees."

To play the Fraxinus game, which was launched on Tuesday, users must match sequences of genetic letters that are represented by coloured leaf shapes.

Prof Allan Downie from John Innes Centre is reported by the BBC saying: "By getting people in, by matching patterns, we might be able to identify what the diversity is of the different individual fungi that are causing this disease.”