Wheat Gene With Resistance To Stripe Rust Discovered

An international team of researchers that includes an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) expert on wheat biotechnology has discovered a gene that will make bread wheat capable of resisting stripe rust, a fungus that causes crop losses in many states.

Scientists transferred a resistant gene, known as Yr36, from a race of wild wheat into a handful of domesticated pasta and bread wheat varieties. The wild wheat was collected in Israel, a part of the Fertile Crescent where ancient varieties of wheat have grown for centuries, according to Ann Blechl, a geneticist at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif.

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