Biotech Updates

New Yellow Rust Strains Threaten Winter Wheat

May 8, 2009

A new race of yellow rust which can devastate winter wheat seeds is being studied by the United Kingdom's National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). Rosemary Bayles, a researcher from NIAB, said that outbreaks of the disease have already been detected in wheat crops despite predictions that it would not be a problem.

 The new strains were found to affect Solstice seedlings, a popular winter wheat variety known to possess resistance to all known races of yellow rust. NIAB researchers are currently evaluating the susceptibility of other popular wheat varieties to the new yellow rust races.

For the original article visit: http://www.niab.com/news.html