Washington — While the breadbasket of Pakistan and India is threatened by a deadly wheat rust disease, researchers believe they may have discovered strains of wheat that can resist the disease known as “Ug99.”
Scientists from all over the world working at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico are behind the discovery of new resistant strains, which were developed through conventional methods. In addition to resisting Ug99, the new strains also appear to resist yellow (or stripe) rust and leaf rust. The new strains reportedly are high-yielding and easily adapt to different climates. The center is part of an international consortium of agricultural research institutions, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research arm. The Mexico center works on developing wheat varieties for emerging economies.
Some of the researchers spoke in June at a meeting in Minneapolis of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which brings together crop experts from international and national research centers and universities. The initiative was founded in 2008 by Norman Borlaug, an American researcher known as the “Father of the Green Revolution” who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and was a longtime leader of the research center in Mexico. Borlaug died in 2009.
In Washington, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hailed the news of the new wheat strains June 13 at the National Press Club, saying that Ug99 threatens crops that feed 1 billion people. “This new understanding of genetics is having an impact on one of the world’s most threatening agricultural challenges,” he said. Ug99 attacks protein-rich hard wheat, which is used for making bread.
BACKGROUND
Ug99 was discovered in Uganda in 1999 and quickly spread to Kenya and other East African nations. Variants of the fungus were carried by winds to Yemen, and in 2007 they were found in Iran. In 2009 the fungus was found in South Africa, according to Marty Carson, research leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Disease Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. Carson’s lab works closely with the Borlaug initiative to track the virulence of wheat rust as it spreads. Together, they train scientists from around the world on how to work with wheat rust strains in their countries.
NEXT STEPS
“The challenge now is to get seeds of these varieties produced in sufficient amount and distributed to farmers before Ug99 becomes established in other countries,” Carson said. “That could take four to five years.” Once the seed is produced, countries need to have the infrastructure to get the seeds to farmers. Next, experts need to educate farmers about the advantages of planting them, he added. “You have to demonstrate that [the new seed] really is a superior variety.”
Vilsack hopes that work being done in the United States can help. He said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development have begun work on a $4.5 million state-of-the-art greenhouse on the university’s St. Paul campus that will increase the amount of growing space at the Cereal Disease Laboratory. That lab identifies and characterizes samples from all over the world and collaborates with national agricultural research institutions to identify new disease strains.
“By expanding our commitment to research that targets crop diseases like Ug99, we can strengthen food security and reduce hunger and poverty in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Pakistan,” said Rob Bertram, head of USAID’s Office of Agriculture, Research and Technology. “Because these threats know no borders, this doesn’t just protect the global food supply. This research concurrently helps U.S. scientists protect America’s wheat crops.”
Carson and his Minnesota colleagues make regular trips to the Kenya research institute and to a research center in Ethiopia to evaluate test results. Because rust spores can be easily transported on shoes and other clothing, when they are at research centers outside the United States, he said, “we take a lot of precautions” not to bring spores back. “The last time I left Kenya, I left my shoes there,” he said.
A video about Ug99 is available on USDA’s website.
