To get ahead of these pathogens, University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers like Dr. Valentyna Klymiuk (PhD) and Dr. Curtis Pozniak (PhD) are studying wild wheat varieties that carry resistance to these harmful pathogens. This led them to discover something they’ve never encountered before — a unique pair of genes that work together to protect against disease.
To support its variety development program, USask’s Crop Development Centre (CDC) has been diving back into the gene pool of wheat and screening its wild relatives for useful traits that can be effectively deployed in new wheat cultivars. Wild wheat has not been domesticated, so it cannot be used directly in breeding, but it contains useful diversity to respond to environmental threats. This makes it ideal for learning new methods of crop resistance.
Research at the CDC focuses on improving crop varieties. By integrating basic research into crop breeding, the CDC translates scientific discoveries into new high yielding varieties that can be used by growers.
“Part of our research is keeping one step ahead of pathogens by identifying new resistance genes which ideally could be stacked, like Lego blocks, so the pathogen can’t easily overcome the resistance,” said Klymiuk.
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