A recent PhD graduate at the University of Saskatchewan is among the first researchers worldwide to apply the groundbreaking sequencing of the bread wheat genome to develop more pest-resistant crops.
A recent PhD graduate at the University of Saskatchewan is among the first researchers worldwide to apply the groundbreaking sequencing of the bread wheat genome to develop more pest-resistant crops.
Kirby Nilsen has used the new sequence to identify genes in wheat that can help the plants resist wheat stem sawfly— a pest that may cause yield losses of up to 30 per cent annually to the $11-billion Canadian wheat industry.
His work was a key component in breakthrough research published Thursday in Science, in which a U of S research team led by Curtis Pozniak, a researcher and wheat breeder at the Crop Development Centre (CDC) in the U of S College of Agriculture and Bioresources, played a key role.
Nilsen worked as a PhD student on the project with Pozniak.
“Without using the complete wheat genome sequence, it would have taken years to find the genes associated with stem solidness,” said Nilsen, now an assistant plant breeder at the CDC.
Continue reading at University of Saskatchewan.
Image via University of Saskatchewan.
