The Agricultural Research Service and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Ankara, Turkey, have established a nursery to study Winter Wheat Stem Rust Resistance. The facility is considered a key tool in the fight against the rust strain Ug99 and is the first of its kind for winter wheat. This joint effort will distribute 100 lines that have been identified by international scientists as having resistance to the deadly Ug99 stem rust and its descendants.
Thirty of the 100 lines in the nursery were developed by ARS scientists. They contain resistance to stem rust races in Kenya and the United States. The lines focus on the use of four or five resistance genes that have been incorporated into various combinations in winter wheat lines. According to ARS research leader David Marshall, multiple genes for resistance will slow the pathogen's ability to readily overcome the new wheat varieties that breeders develop.
Winter wheat lines in the nursery are being distributed to wheat breeders and geneticists in 34 countries, including those that have been hit hardest by the disease.
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