Scientists Unveil New Way to Grow Quality Wheat Faster

Scientists from the University of Queensland (UQ) have discovered a fast way to develop a new strain of wheat resistant to stripe rust and pre-harvest sprouting. The new wheat product was developed using a new breeding strategy that shortens development time from more than 10 years to just two-and-a-half years.

Dr. Lee Hickey and Dr. Mark Dieters used a novel approach to transfer multiple genes for resistance to stripe rust and grain dormancy into the Australian wheat cultivar H45. H45 was a successful wheat variety with fast maturity and high yield potential, but has been abandoned by most growers because of its susceptibility to current strains of stripe rust present along the east coast of Australia. According to Hickey, they developed 84 wheat lines, each 90 to 95 percent genetically similar to the H45 variety, but with multiple genes for resistance to rust and pre-harvest sprouting. He added that there are no wheat varieties available to Australian growers that offer adequate protection against pre-harvest sprouting, so this would be a first.

For more information about this research, read the UQ news release available at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=26687.