GrainsWest Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Grains West 42 The lighter, discoloured barley heads pictured here are impacted by Fusarium head blight. FEATURE application in breeding barley with FHB- resistant material and lower subsequent DON content. “Since it became an economic problem in the 1990s, FHB has been a devastating and difficult disease to combat,” said Badea. “Resistance breeding for FHB is challenging for barley breeders as many small genes in combination are required to contribute to the desired outcome of a resistant barley cultivar.” Where traditional breeding is limited by labour intensive field evaluation, nursery capacities and tedious DON testing, breeding based on genomic information offers the advantage of selection prior to field evaluation. This allows breeders to use valuable field resources in a more efficient manner. Though there is still work to be done, scientists see a range of benefits emerging from the project. “We expect that our results will lead to further development of FHB resistance in barley, which may limit DON production and increase sales into lucrative malting barley industries,” said Tucker. “New cultivars that also feature improved built-in FHB resistance will allow Canadian malting barley producers to stay competitive by producing high quality malting barley suitable for both Canadian and global markets.” Creating resistant barley cultivars may also permit sustainable production in agricultural zones previously lost due to this disease. Overall, enhancement of FHB-resistant cereal crops will limit disease residues and lessen occurrence of FHB. U.S.-CHINA TEAM DISCOVERS FHB RESISTANCE GENE A team of Chinese and American agricultural researchers has identified a gene in Thinopyrum wheatgrass that will be used to develop FHB-resistant wheat varieties. “Wheat FHB is a devastating disease in both the U.S. and China,” said Guihua Bai, research plant molecular geneticist with the United States Department of Agriculture. “Thus, the search for resistance to FHB is an important research objective for wheat geneticists and breeders.” To date, many genes for resistance have been reported, but most of them have a limited effect. One that has a substantial impact is Fhb7, the focus of this project. “Our goals were to identify the gene sequence responsible for Fhb7 resistance, use that gene sequence to develop a diagnostic marker to deploy the gene in wheat breeding and study the gene’s impact on resistance in wheat,” said Bai. Scientists found that using Fhb7 in wheat breeding can significantly improve resistance in wheat cultivars. As well, cloning the gene will speed up gene deployment and make breeding more effective. Producing resistant cultivars will increase wheat yield and quality and reduce fungicide costs. The international nature of this project was critical as researchers required expertise from several areas to achieve their objectives. “We needed people with experience in genotyping, phenotyping, genomics and biochemistry support,” said Bai. “That was the basis of our international collaboration, and a big part of our success.” Photo:CourtesyofBruceFritz