{"id":18312,"date":"2014-08-08T09:32:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T01:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/eureka-disease-susceptible-crops-now-speedily-discarded\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T10:19:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T02:19:36","slug":"eureka-disease-susceptible-crops-now-speedily-discarded","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/eureka-disease-susceptible-crops-now-speedily-discarded\/","title":{"rendered":"Eureka! Disease susceptible crops now speedily discarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new approach to breeding disease-resistant wheat has named a Â鶹ֱ²¥ research team as finalists in the 2014 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, within the sustainable agriculture category.<\/span><\/p>\n

The discovery has led to less use of fungicides while effectively increasing the intensity of farming, with more crop per hectare, per millimetre of rainfall, and per kilogram of fertiliser used, bringing multi-million dollar savings to the agricultural industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>
Team leader, Professor Richard Oliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The team, led by Professor Richard Oliver, Chief Scientific Officer of Curtin\u2019s Centre for Crop and Disease Management \u2013 which is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation \u2013 developed a simple test that can clearly identify which wheat line is more resistant to two common diseases, in a matter of days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe diseases, tan spot and septoria nodorum blotch, cause annual wheat yield losses worth more than $300 million in Australia alone, and many more millions for the rest of the world,\u201d Professor Oliver said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, breeding for resistance was very time-consuming, with previous approaches often requiring three years of field trials in three different locations, using quantitative scoring of disease virulence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn just two weeks, a breeder can now identify if a plant carries a resistant gene or not, just by inoculating the seedling\u2019s leaves with the toxin we discovered.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007 the team discovered a gene within the two fungal diseases that produced a toxin that made wheat susceptible to the disease. <\/span><\/p>\n

Following this, they also showed that wheat\u2019s sensitivity to the toxin correlated well with being susceptible to the disease, and conversely wheat\u2019s insensitivity to the toxin correlated well with being resistant to the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

This discovery formed the basis of the simple test, which involves injecting the toxin into leaves and seeing if the disease is capable of latching onto the crop, and if it does, discarding that sensitive line from the selection process.<\/span><\/p>\n