An Everyday DNA blog article
Written by: Sarah Sharman, PhD
Illustrated by: Cathleen Shaw
It’s Thanksgiving week in the South, which means two things are guaranteed: someone’s sneaking a third helping of the secret family recipe mac and cheese (guilty!), and households across Alabama will once again be forced to choose a side.
Not over politics or which pie reigns supreme (team pumpkin, all the way). We’re talking about the real rivalry of the season: football. In some households, there’s no escaping it: Dad’s in crimson, Mom’s waving an orange-and-blue pompom, and the family dog, being a neutral party, is wearing a bandana that’s both.
While most of this rivalry plays out with good-natured jabs, it once took a tragic turn rooted literally on Auburn’s campus. Continue reading to learn about the rivalry gone wrong and how science stepped in to save the day.
The Ultimate Rivalry
Every rivalry has its legendary moments: miracle catches, last-second field goals, and heartbreaks that still come up at family dinners decades later. But few rivalries run as deep as Alabama versus Auburn.
The Iron Bowl isn’t just a football game. It’s basically a statewide holiday. For more than a century, fans from both sides have lived for that crisp Saturday after Thanksgiving, the one chance to claim bragging rights until the next season.
That intensity, though, sometimes spills over the sidelines. During the 2010 Iron Bowl, the rivalry took a dark, heartbreaking turn when Auburn’s iconic Toomer’s Corner oaks were deliberately poisoned.
For generations, those trees framed the edge of campus and served as the center of celebration. After every Tiger victory, fans would flock to Toomer’s Corner to “roll” the trees, coating every branch in a fluttering layer of white toilet paper. It was playful chaos. When news broke that the trees were dying, it felt like losing part of the community’s identity. The poison caused such intense, irreversible damage that the trees could not be saved.
But out of that heartbreak came a quiet act of scientific hope. Unbeknownst to many, a few Auburn University professors collected small branches from the dying trees, induced them to root, and regrew them in pots, creating the perfect genetic clones of the originals.
In 2021, Dr. Les Goertzen, one of the scientists who helped save the clones, and HudsonAlpha faculty investigator, Dr. Alex Harkess, together saw an opportunity to further preserve the Toomer’s Oaks in a way that no weather, fire, or even rivalry could ever erase: through their DNA. By capturing the oaks’ genetic code, they would make sure that even if a tree didn’t survive, its unique biological story would.
For Auburn, that meant the spirit of the Toomer’s Oaks could live on, not just in replanted saplings or fan memory, but in the data files of scientists who study how trees grow, adapt, and endure. The scientific chapter of this story is nearly complete: the full Toomer’s Oak genome sequence is scheduled to be published soon, making its data officially available to researchers worldwide.
Why sequence a tree?
At first, it might sound like something only a dedicated botanist could love: mapping the genetic code of trees down to the last base pair. But tree genomes hold answers to some big questions about Earth’s future.
Trees clean our air, anchor our soil, store carbon, feed and shelter wildlife, and quite literally keep us breathing. They’re ecological keystones holding everything else in place.
By sequencing a tree’s genome, scientists can uncover the genetic instructions for growth, adaptation, and survival. With that knowledge, we can answer questions like:
- Why do some trees withstand drought, disease, or pollution when others can’t?
- How will certain species adapt as the climate shifts?
- What clues can their DNA reveal about forest health or ecosystem change?
At HudsonAlpha, sequencing is in our DNA. The same technology used to study human genomes can illuminate the mysteries of other species. And if you think a tree genome just sits quietly in a database somewhere, think again. These genetic maps are tools for real-world problem-solving. Scientists can use them to identify markers of disease resistance, guide reforestation efforts, and even inform breeding programs to strengthen vulnerable populations.
From Rivalries to Roots – The ACTG Story Grows
What started with a few beloved oaks in Auburn has grown branches across the country through a project called American Campus Tree Genomes (ACTG). It is a nationwide effort to sequence, study, and forever record the genetic blueprints of some of America’s most beloved campus trees. Since its inception in Auburn in 2021, the project has connected over 250 students, scientists, and campuses across 13 schools, sharing a mission to learn from and protect the trees that make every campus feel like home.
Each participating school chooses a signature tree, maybe the oak shading the main quad or a magnolia outside the library, and students get to work. They collect leaves, isolate DNA, and work with HudsonAlpha researchers to assemble the tree’s complete genetic instruction manual. It’s part environmental science, part genomics crash course, and part love letter to the campus landscape.
For many students, it’s a first step into real research. Students aren’t just reading textbooks; they’re gaining sophisticated laboratory and bioinformatics skills, everything from performing PCR and gel electrophoresis to handling complex genomic data sets. Through the process, students learn lab and data skills, but also something deeper: they see firsthand how the genome from their campus tree can contribute to worldwide efforts in conservation and climate adaptation. They learn how to use computational tools to compare their campus tree’s unique genetic code against others. This hands-on experience brings abstract biological concepts to life, making them tangible and relevant.
The project’s reach extends beyond classrooms. Schools share results with their communities, sparking campus-wide curiosity about genomics and environmental stewardship. It’s science education at its most powerful.
In a way, ACTG is creating a living national archive, not of human heroes, but of natural ones. Auburn’s Toomer’s Oaks, the University of South Carolina’s sabal palm, the University of Georgia’s hedges, and countless others are finding digital immortality through the shared effort of students who care about both their alma mater and their planet. This dedication is paying off: the scientific paper detailing the full sequencing and analysis of the Toomer’s Oak genome, led by first author and graduate student Laramie Akozbek, is set to be published soon, a profound scientific tribute to a beloved campus landmark.
The American Campus Tree Genomes Project is supported in part by funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant to Alex Harkess.
