A new gene that will equip wheat plants to resist the deadly stem rust disease has been discovered by an international team that includes plant scientists at the University of California, Davis.
The study findings on the Sr33 gene appear as the cover article of the Aug. 16 issue of the journal Science’s special issue devoted to “Smarter Pest Control.” This article is a companion piece to an article—also co-authored by UC Davis scientists—that reports the findings of another resistance gene, Sr35, which also confers immunity to wheat stem rust disease.
The research team, which included co-author Jan Dvorak, a professor and wheat geneticist at UC Davis, succeeded in cloning the Sr33 gene, known to exist in Aegilops tauschii, a wild relative of common bread wheat.
Read the full, original story here: “Scientists help deliver genetic one-two blow to deadly wheat disease”
