ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER COVER STORY 8 continued from page 7 Burt says that the AAFC team is identifying traits that will enhance the resilience of HRW and can be integrated into variety development programs. He says these climate-adapted traits will enhance the resilience of wheat under stressful and variable environmental conditions along with new disease pressures that come with changing weather patterns. “The greater the genetic diversity, the greater the opportunities our downstream breeding partners will have in developing varieties that will reduce the long-term risks growers face,” he says. Adding a strong germplasm development phase to the variety development process will increase the number and diversity of traits available for further breeding. The next step of the project focuses on incorporating these traits into variety development programs, ultimately providing seed companies with advanced genetic lines. These new lines will lead to a wider range of HRW varieties that perform well for Ontario growers, meet the quality needs of end users, and hopefully expand Ontario’s HRW acres. GENETIC SOLUTIONS To identify the necessary traits that will help farmers cope with the new realities of climate change and expand opportunities for HRW acres, researchers need only to look at the current challenges growers are facing… and expect the need for solutions-based genetics to amplify. For example, researcher Humphreys says that fusarium head blight has been getting worse in recent years because of changing weather conditions. The AAFC team also expects rust diseases, including leaf and stripe rust, to become more common and damaging in Ontario wheat fields. Team members also predict powdery mildew to become more prevalent. In an effort to achieve the strongest possible diseaseresistance package, the research team is planning ahead, working toward stacking several resistance sources into one line and one set of germplasm. “Disease pressures change when new inoculum arrives due to southern wind patterns, and we need to be able to protect our crops, especially against these key yield-robbing diseases,” Humphreys says. “Our best defence will always be genetic resistance.” The team is also taking this in-depth germplasm development opportunity to explore novel genetic traits that can serve the industry, including biological nitrification inhibition. As a proactive climate-resilience trait, the nitrification inhibition trait would improve wheat roots’ ability to suppress the bacteria that This research approach is poised to deliver enhanced resilience, improved sustainability and better varieties for growers
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