K-State Ag Today: Wheat scab research moves forward
12:31 p.m. Thursday, July 24, 2008
Today's wheat varieties are resistant to many more diseases than the varieties available 20 or 30 years ago, but researchers are still tackling wheat scab.
K-State Research and Extension plant pathologist Bill Bockus says some researchers are developing populations of resistant plants, from which new varieties will be selected.
Related links
U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative
"And that process takes 10 or 12 years from the time a breeder starts to make crosses to the time a new variety comes out. And so we're about halfway through that process," Bockus said.
Traditional cross-breeding methods are still common, but Bockus says genetic engineering could make the process faster and more precise.
"FHB-1 - Fusarium Head Blight-1 - is the main resistance gene from a Chinese variety called Sumai 3. And part of the work that's going on here by USDA is to develop molecular markers so we know when that FHB-1 gene is in our material. And so then, we can combine native resistance with this FHB, Chinese resistance gene, into the same variety, and hopefully they'll add together and you'll get even higher levels of resistance."
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)