ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER RESEARCH 15 continued on page 16 Ontario wheat growers are constantly on guard against fusarium head blight (FHB). In Eastern Canada, FHB is the wheat disease that affects profitability the most. And that’s unfortunate for soft red winter wheat (SRW) growers in particular. FHB resistance is relatively poor, even though dedicated SRW breeding efforts have led to great yield and end-use quality profiles. Dr. Michel McElroy at the Centre de recherche sur les grains (CÉROM) in Quebec says most varieties listed in the Ontario winter wheat performance trial are rated as moderately susceptible or susceptible to FHB. That means fungicide applications are necessary when conditions favourable to this pathogen are present. But that’s a problem in itself. Fungicide applications are expensive and ineffective if not applied within the critical period, McElroy says. Ideally, genetic resistance would serve as the first line of defense against FHB. However, variety choices for this crucial part of a grower’s disease management strategy are limited. WORKING TOGETHER Against this backdrop, McElroy and Dr. Lily Tamburic-Ilincic at the University of Guelph– Ridgetown Campus joined forces last spring on a major FHB management project. With funding from Grain Farmers of Ontario (via the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition), the Seed Producers of Quebec and SeCan, they’re combining their breeders’ skills to select the most promising lines in their two provinces and deliver new germplasm for other public breeders in Eastern Canada. “In the end,” Tamburic-Ilincic says, “the goal is to register new cultivars with much-improved FHB resistance and make that seed available to winter wheat growers in this part of Canada.” TRAIT COMPLEXITIES Integrating FHB resistance genes into superior SRW germplasm without bringing along undesirable or unwanted traits mainly related to plant height, maturity date, and susceptibility to rust diseases is difficult. And even when traits are not directly linked to resistance, certain genes simply do not combine well, McElroy says. So, it’s critical to consider regional adaptation traits and how to integrate genes related to FHB resistance that are present in one distinct wheat line into others that are in another quality class. Many FHB genes – over 500, in fact – have already been identified by wheat geneticists. Several gene groupings with large resistance effects have been wellcharacterized and are now used in wheat breeding programs across the world. Among these, two stand out: Fhb5 (type I resistance, relating to initial infection) and Fhb1 (type II resistance, relating to infection spread). These gene groupings have been found in some of the public winter wheat programs in Eastern Canada, but they’re mainly concentrated in hard red wheat. One variety worth noting is AAC Harfang. It has superb FHB resistance and demonstrates exceptional winter survival and yield. It was recently released by CÉROM in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). McElroy and Tamburic-Ilincic will create lines with this variety using UGRC Ring as a parent (UGRC is an acronym for University of Guelph-Ridgetown Campus). This SRW variety carries neither Fhb1 nor Fhb5 resistance. It offers good pastry flour quality, plus it displays high yield and strong adaptability to conditions across eastern Canada. A SNEAK PEEK AT PROGRESS In 2025, McElroy and Tamburic-Ilincic completed seed multiplication for the current panel of cultivars. They also planted plots in Tupperville, Ont. for agronomy evaluation in 2026, and in Ridgetown for infection with FHB in 2026. Dr. Michel McElroy: Fungicide applications are necessary at critical times, but expensive (photo courtesy Dr. Michel McElroy).
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