Wild Relatives May Hold Key to Deadly Wheat Disease

The threat of a new, highly virulent wheat rust strain known as Ug 99 looms over global wheat production. Wheat varieties initially resistant to the pathogen are showing signs of succumbing to wheat rust. The survival of vulnerable wheat varieties may lie in the valuable genetic material of their wild relatives. Bioversity International (formerly, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute) has been working on a global project to protect important and threatened crop wild relatives by encouraging their in situ conservation - in farmers’ fields and in the wild - thereby ensuring that they are available to meet agricultural challenges like that posed by Ug 99.

Wild relatives offer a critical source of genes that can provide resistance to a wide range of diseases, pests and environmental stresses. However, over-exploitation, habitat loss and climate change threaten this vital resource. Bioversity and its partners are working to protect crop wild relatives. “Good protection of crop diversity and wild relatives is the best insurance policy we can have,” said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International. “You never know what the next problem will be. But whatever it is, agricultural biodiversity is likely to provide the solution.”

Read the news release at http://ipgri-pa.grinfo.net/index.php?itemid=1680.