Issue 32
November/
December 2000

Prairie Grains is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat, Inc. and the Minnesota Barley Growers Assocation.

Copyright Prairie
Grains Magazine
November/
December 2000

CIMMYT partners with U.S. researchers in effort to solve FHB

By Tracy Sayler

A major crop research center in Mexico, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), may prove to be instrumental in helping to bring Fusarium head blight (FHB, or scab) under control with wheat and barley varieties that are resistant or more tolerant of the fungal disease.

Sanjaya Rajaram, director of CIMMYT's wheat program, and Tom Anderson, a MN farmer and co-chair of the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, in a FHB (scab) screening nursery at CIMMYT's research plots at Toluca, Mexico.  In the foreground at right, note the green wheat plants resistant to FHB, compared to wheat susceptible to scab at left.  Leaders and crop scientists involved with the USWBSI visited CIMMYT's research operations in September. The USWBSI and CIMMYT are collaborating on FHB research, and the first introduction of FHB-tolerant germplasm for CIMMYT in U.S. wheat and barley breeding programs will occure in November, 2000.

CIMMYT was established to help with international food security in 1966, following the implementation of a special research program sponsored by the Mexican Government and the Rockefeller Foundation. The internationally funded, nonprofit CIMMYT, with headquarters about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, and with 15 regional offices in developing countries, implements research and training programs related to the production of corn and wheat, two crops recognized as a basic food source for much of the world's population.

Major activities at CIMMYT (On the Internet: www.cimmyt.cgiar.org) include the development and worldwide distribution of improved varieties, the conservation of genetic resources, and the production of documentation related to new knowledge about these crops.

Success in developing high-yielding wheats enabled a quick response in the mid-1960s to looming disaster in parts of Asia, where widespread malnutrition and starvation threatened millions of people. The resulting Green Revolution earned the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for Dr. Norman Borlaug, an early leader in CIMMYT's wheat research.

Today, CIMMYT employs over 100 scientific staff from about 40 countries, and more than 600 support staff, and collaborates with as many as 100 nations globally. Over 5000 researchers from around the world are alumni of CIMMYT's training programs. A key research component of CIMMYT is to develop improved germplasm with built-in tolerance/resistance to environmental stresses, pests, and diseases, such as FHB.

For the past year, CIMMYT and the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative have been collaborating on FHB research. Grain groups including the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, and South Dakota Wheat Inc., played a key role in establishing the USWBSI. In FY2000, research supported by the USWBSI across the U.S. involved 104 projects carried out in 23 states by over 70 scientists from 22 land grant universities and the USDA-ARS.

"CIMMYT has germplasm and useful genes for both type I (incidence) II (spread) and IV (DON) in lines that have good kernel quality under inoculation," says Anne McKendry, University of Missouri winter wheat breeder, who chairs the Initiative's germplasm introduction research area.

The first introduction of FHB-tolerant germplasm from CIMMYT in U.S. wheat and barley breeding programs will occur in November, 2000. The germplasm will include 27 CIMMYT bread wheats, 21 synthetic derivatives from CIMMYT, 15 introductions from China (identified by McKendry and CIMMYT's Lucy Gilchrist during a visit to China in May), 8 advanced breeding lines from Nanjing Agricultural University in China and 7 lines from Romania.

After arriving in the U.S., the various genotypes will be quarantined in the greenhouse at several wheat and barley breeding programs and simultaneously increased for distribution to participating scientists in the public sector.

Leaders and crop scientists involved with the USWBSI visited CIMMYT earlier this fall. During their visit, representatives of the USWBSI toured CIMMYT's acres of research plots, including research focusing on FHB and FHB-resistant germplasm.

"One thing we learned is that CIMMYT has incredible red tape to go through in disseminating germplasm, because of quarantine restrictions for Karnal bunt," says Tom Anderson, a Barnesville, MN farmer and co-chair of the USWBSI. "It's realized that there is need for a precautionary system to prevent Karnal bunt, but at the same time, some of the restrictions in place seem confusing and unreasonable, which ultimately delay scab research progress. We'd like to work with regulatory officials to streamline the rules."