Breeding spring wheat for scab resistance in the United States
1997
Rudd, J. (South Dakota State Univ. (USA). Plant Science Dept.)
Although scab has been recognized as an important disease in the USA since early this century, research efforts have been sporadic. The 1993 epidemic in the Northern Great Plains, with an estimated loss of more than a billion dollars, revealed that research efforts on this disease were far from adequate. In the autumn of 1993, researchers, producers, and commodity group representatives from North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba, Canada, met to discuss the status of scab research. Research progress was reported and strategic plans for the future were formulated at this Annual Regional Scab Forum. This yearly event has facilitated cooperative projects and has led to the proliferation of scab related research. Regional spring wheat breeding programs are working both independently and cooperatively to develop scab resistant cultivars. The breeding objective is to combine "field tolerance" and resistance to spread in the spike into an acceptable agronomic background. The breeding approach is to steadily recombine different resistance sources and to simultaneously select for resistance and desirable agronomics. Although each of the breeding programs has evaluated a large diversity of germplasm, the most universal source of resistance used traces back to the Chinese cultivar Sumai 3. Field screening is performed under mist irrigation and more precise evaluation is carried 011t in the greenhouse. The Uniform Regional Scab Nursery for Parental Germplasm facilitates the evaluation of material over a wide range of environments and provides an opportunity for germplasm exchange between the breeders.
Показать больше [+] Меньше [-]