Feds Help Canada Prepare for Wheat Stem Rust, Ug99 with Continued Research Investment

Nov 20, 2013

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

There’s good news for Canadian wheat producers.

Government of Canada researchers are making progress in protecting wheat crops from the potentially devastating wheat disease known as Ug99.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced Wednesday, a $1.26 million investment to continue the research. This will mark the second phase of funding for Ug99. In 2009, the government provided $13 million towards the cause.

"The discoveries coming out of this research will protect farmers' livelihoods and help provide food security in Canada and around the world," Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release.

Since 2009, the research team has successfully discovered three genes, which provide resistance to Ug99. Currently, molecular markers are being developed, which will be helpful for future wheat breeding efforts. The additional funding will allow researchers to genetically map the sources of resistance, furthering efforts to be proactive with the disease, should it to occur in Canada.

The disease, Ug99, is a wheat stem rust, which was first discovered in Uganda in 1999. Researchers estimate about 90 per cent of crops from Africa and Western Asia are already being affected. Wheat grown in Canada is vulnerable to the disease.

Eventually, the research will be used for practical purposes, to incorporate resistance to Ug99 into various wheat lines. The hope is that new cultivars will have resistance genes to be able to fend off rust pathogens from adapting and from becoming resistant.

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