Crown rot solutions pour into wheat breeding pipeline
groundcover.grdc.com.au, Other, 18/02/2021, Richard Trethowan
Yield losses from Fusarium crown rot can be as high as 50 per cent in susceptible wheat varieties in moisture-limited farming systems in Australia. While there is strong demand for high-yielding, well-adapted wheat varieties with acceptable levels of resistance and tolerance to crown rot, existing genetic sources have only been partially resistant and mainly found in poorly adapted genetic backgrounds. That, however, is finally changing through the efforts of the University of Sydney, with the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), the University of Southern Queensland and CSIRO, which have significantly improved genetic resistance and tolerance to Fusarium crown rot in bread wheat.