Manhattan, Kansas
January 15, 2009
Kansas is lucky that a devastating
wheat fungus isn't threatening the state's crops yet.
Researchers at Kansas State
University are getting $1 million from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to keep it that way.
Barbara Valent, university distinguished professor of plant
pathology, is leading a group of researchers to study the wheat
blast fungus, a pathogen that has become a serious threat in
Brazil.
"We don't know if our varieties in Kansas are susceptible, so we
want to be prepared," Valent said.
The wheat blast fungus is a close relative of a devastating
fungus that has long affected rice crops and another fungus that
affects turf grass across the country. In the mid-1980s a close
relative of these fungi began affecting wheat in and around
Brazil, Valent said.
"It hasn't moved north from South America, but there's the
potential that it could," she said. "We don't know where it came
from or what effects climate change may have on it."
That's why the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative
State Research, Education and Extension Service is providing
$999,688 to study the fungus. The K-State researchers from the
department of plant pathology include professors William Bockus
and James Stack, and Xiaoyan Tang, associate professor. They
will be working with Gary Peterson and Kerry Pedley of the U.S
Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service
Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, Fort Detrick, Md.,
and with collaborators from Brazil's Embrapa Wheat group.
Fred Cholick, dean of K-State's College of Agriculture and
director of K-State Research and Extension, said getting the $1
million grant recognizes K-State's experience in food safety and
security in the field of plant health.
"This is what K-State as a land-grant university is all about --
solving problems before they have a global impact," Cholick
said. "This is particularly important when you're talking about
a wheat disease that could have a major impact on the economy."
Valent said the project comprises three areas, the first of
which is sequencing the fungus's genome to find genome fragments
specific to the wheat blast pathogen. Valent said this would
help in the creation of diagnostic tools that field specialists
can use in the field to identify wheat blast.
"The disease looks a lot like wheat scab, so it's important to
train people to look for wheat blast and to discern between the
two," Valent said. "The longer a disease goes unnoticed, the
harder it is to control."
The second area of research is screening the Kansas wheat
varieties for resistance to wheat blast. All work with the
fungus will be done in K-State's Biosecurity Research Institute,
a $54 million biosafety-level 3 facility in Pat Roberts Hall on
the K-State campus.
"The Biosecurity Research Institute is a perfect facility for us
to look at resistance in the Kansas varieties because we want to
make sure the fungus doesn't spread," Valent said. "We're
putting together a lab where the plants and fungus can be grown
and stored, and where we can work with the fungus and destroy it
after testing."
Beth Montelone, interim scientific director of the Biosecurity
Research Institute, said, "We are very pleased that Dr. Valent
and her colleagues will be bringing their wheat blast research
to the BRI. We have a biosafety level 3-enhanced plant research
laboratory that will offer excellent containment for this
pathogen."
While K-State is doing research at the Biosecurity Research
Institute, the U.S Department of Agriculture's Agricultural
Research Service will be testing select wheat and barley
varieties as well as potential grass hosts from other regions of
the U.S. in the agency's biosafety-level 3 facility at Fort
Detrick, Md.
Valent said that the genome sequencing part of the research will
benefit from other campus resources as well, including a
sophisticated genome sequencing apparatus that the Integrated
Genomics Facility, housed in the department of plant pathology,
recently acquired.
Valent said the researchers also will take advantage of the
wheat varieties available at K-State's Wheat Genetic and Genomic
Resource Center, led by Bikram Gill, university distinguished
professor of plant pathology. The center maintains a gene bank
with 2,500 wheat accessions.
Once the researchers have narrowed down a few Kansas varieties
in the laboratory, they will further test the resistance by
planting them in a test field in Brazil. "We'll let the fungus
find our varieties naturally," Valent said.
The third aspect of the project involves sharing findings about
wheat blast with stakeholders in the state's wheat production.
This involves creating Web-based communication tools and
organizing three workshops, individually tailored for extension
professionals, industry professionals, policymakers or
diagnosticians of the National Plant Diagnostic Network. Valent
said that the workshops will take advantage of the Biosecurity
Research Institute's capability to connect trainees in a
conference room with scientists working in containment via
video.
Valent said the project will offer experience to two graduate
students, one in the communications field and another in plant
science.
"One reason we're really excited about this project is that
we're teaching students how to deal with plant bioterrorism
threats," Valent said. "The student in the sciences will be
taught not only how to look for resistance, but also how to do
it in a high-containment environment. That's not something
students often get a lot of experience in." |
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