Agriculture Canada is receiving an extra $1.26 million to research ways to control the wheat disease Ug99.
Researchers in Winnipeg have identified three genes providing resistance to Ug99. They are now developing molecular markers to help with the wheat breeding efforts.
The additional funding will help scientists discover and genetically map these sources of resistance.
Ug99 is a wheat stem rust first discovered in Uganda in 1999. Crops from Africa to western Asia are affected, and an estimated 90 percent of global wheat varieties are susceptible to the disease.
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Ug99 is not yet present in North America, but Agriculture Canada scientists have been working to not only protect the country’s wheat crops but also help the global effort in protecting world wheat supplies.
Crossbreeding efforts at Agriculture Canada will speed up the replacement of susceptible varieties with new varieties that are higher yielding and resistant to Ug99.
The department said the goal is to incorporate resistance to Ug99 into Canadian wheat lines and ensure that new cultivars have at least two effective resistant genes to help prevent rust pathogens from adapting to the resistance.
The latest funding builds on $13 million that the federal government provided in 2009.
