Sustaining global food production through stem rust resistance from wild wheat relatives

Event Details

Date:

Thursday, 02 April 2015

Time:

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Room:

Level 3, Large Seminar Room

UQ Location:

Queensland Bioscience Precinct (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/?page=219791&pid=207533

Event category(s):

Full Description:: QAAFI Science Seminar
Presented by Dr Sam (Sambasivam) Periyannan
Postdoctoral Fellow, CSIRO
Adjunct Fellow, UQ
Adjunct Lecturer, USyd

Abstract
Wheat, the cereal which is used to make our daily bread, is the primary agricultural and food crop of Australia and countries worldwide. Among the various pest and disease affecting wheat cultivation, the fungal pathogen that causes rust disease is a serious one as new forms with increased disease potential emerges frequently. For instance, the wheat stem rust pathogen Ug99 was declared as one of the top biological threats to global food security as more than 80% of the worldwide wheat cultivars were deemed susceptible during its initial identification in the Eastern parts of Africa.

In order to safeguard the globally important food crop from this deadly fungus, a global initiative called Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat was started and more than 30 wheat research centres including CSIRO were brought together to monitor and prevent further spread of Ug99. As part of this big project, CSIRO's task is to characterise rust resistance from wild wheat species that has the ability to tolerate Ug99 and other globally important stem rust pathogens. Recently, with the use of conventional and modern genetic tools, we were successful in isolating three stem rust resistance genes derived from Triticum monococcum and Aegilops tauschii, the A and D genome progenitors of cultivated bread wheat (AABBDD).