A team of nearly a dozen people, including scientists, technicians and students working at the University of Manitoba's (U of M) research farm are mounting a front-line campaign again this summer to screen thousands of potential wheat lines for genetic resistance to one of the most devastating diseases threatening Canadian wheat crops.
As many as 12,000 lines from wheat breeding programs across Western Canada will be evaluated at the U of M's field nursery at Carman for resistance to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), says Dr. Anita Brűlé-Babel, a wheat breeder, geneticist and professor at the University. Early generation lines as well as lines that are in the final stages of testing prior to variety registration are being evaluated. Fusarium is a fungal disease which over the past decade has produced both quality and quantity losses in the Canadian wheat crop totaling an estimated $1 billion.
"Breeders are obviously making progress in developing new lines with improved resistance to the disease," says Brűlé-Babel. "We're seeing a higher frequency of better looking lines each year."
For example, a recently recommended Proven Seed red spring variety, BW297, was tested in the nursery. BW297 represents an important step up in Fusarium resistance. With a moderately resistance rating, BW297 fits a level between the existing AC Barrie which has an intermediate reaction to FHB and the well-known U.S. variety Alsen, which is rated as moderately resistant to resistant.
The Carman nursery, established in 2001 is one of the region's main screening facilities for evaluating how new wheat lines stand up to the disease. It is a collaborative project involving several research institutions across the Prairies and is supported in part by farmers through the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF).
The nursery plays an important role in the roughly seven to 10 year process of developing new wheat varieties and bringing them to market, says Brűlé-Babel. Data from the nursery helps breeders evaluate their lines and select the best material. It also provides a basis for decisions on what lines are eventually approved for registration.
For 2004, Brűlé-Babel, working with two other scientists, Dr. Dilantha Fernando and Dr. Jeannie Gilbert, technician, Roger Larios, and as many as seven students, will evaluate each of the 12,000 lines of wheat supplied by plant breeders at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre (SPARC) in Swift Current, Sask. and the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, MB; the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon, and the U of M.
It's a very labor intensive and detailed process to evaluate new wheat lines for the disease, she says. The Carman nursery has the facilities as well as the climate to maximize disease levels. The objective is to expose new wheat lines to high disease pressure. "Any line that shows promising results for resistance under extreme disease levels has a greater chance of providing consistent disease resistance under variable field conditions," she says.
All observations and ratings need to be carefully documented and the results delivered to respective breeders by late August or early September, so breeders can determine the most promising lines to take forward in the breeding program.
"Our screening just looks at the level of fusarium resistance," says Brűlé-Babel. "But that is only one factor to be considered in selecting new lines. Plant breeders also have to look at a wide range of agronomic traits and quality factors before deciding if a new line is worth pursuing."
The Wheat and Barley Check-off Fund, administered by WGRF, allocates more than $4 million annually to wheat and barley breeding programs. WGRF funding for the FHB nursery for wheat comes from interest earned on its Wheat Check-off Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund is set up to maintain Check-off funding in the event of a major crop failure. The WGRF Board, comprised of producers representing 17 diverse agricultural organizations, decided to use a portion of the interest on this reserve fund to support the nursery, as a natural complement to the main breeding effort.
In addition to WGRF, the nursery is supported by Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund and Manitoba's Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (ARDI).
