Summary of the technology
Resistance genes to North American races of the stripe rust pathogen
Project ID : 1-2011-164
Details of the Technology Offer
BACHGROUD
• Wheat is vulnerable to different diseases including rusts
• Wheat rusts are fungal diseases causing dramatic yield losses
• Three rust diseases are present: leaf rust, stripe rust and stem rust
• Rust disease can occur as sudden epidemics on a continental scale due to the widespread dispersal of spores
• In the United States, annual losses are estimated to be $5 billion to grain rust diseases, with US wheat producers experiencing approximately 20 % economic loss annually.
THE NEED
• Wheat resistant lines are the preferred strategy in controlling rust diseases
• Rust populations have appeared, which can overcome increasing number of the known resistance genes
• As a result, not many native resistance genes are still effective in wheat
• New sources of durable, rust-resistant seeds are urgently needed
TECHNOLOGY
• We found a new sources of durable resistance to wheat rusts
• Wild cereal plants are highly resistant to a range of wheat pathogens, including and in particular all types of rusts.
• We used non-GMO chromosome engineering technology to produce wheat lines that harbor in their genomes chromosome segments from wild cereal plant and thus, confer rust resistance
• This genetic fragment carrying the new rust resistance genes, can be deliverd a commercial wheat lines via breeding to be used by farmers for growing rust-resistant wheat, and by breeders in order to introduce new rust-resistant local varieties
STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT
Leaf and yellow rust resistance genes from Sharon goatgrass (Sg) were transferred to wheat. The transferred segment contains large parts of the Sg chromosome
The goal of the development plan sponsored by MOMENTUM fund is to shorten the length of the alien Sg chromosome such that wheat plants will carry the new rust resistance genes but will be otherwise identical to the elite wheat line.
PATENTS
WO/2015/036995 - RESISTANCE TO RUST DISEASE IN WHEAT – in Natioal phase