Updates from the International Wheat Congress: a durum wheat perspective

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In September 2024 wheat scientists have met in Perth (Australia) for the 3rd International Wheat Congress (IWC), the event was well attended, nevertheless the durum wheat community was underrepresented. To keep the durum community updated on the most recent advancements on wheat science with potential impact on durum wheat breeding, the chairs of the EWG on durum wheat have selected 4 of the most relevant presentations and asked the speakers to report in this Virtual Durum Meeting.

The final presentation will be dedicated to a new initiative of the EWG for the establishment of a panel of durum wheat carrying value sources on Fusarium Head Blight resistance.

The 6th Virtual Durum Meeting starts at 3.00 pm Central European Time

Chairs: Karim Ammar & Agata Gadaleta

Programme

Join the Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens in their webinar:

Dr. Guus Bakkeren and his talk “Tackling wheat leaf rust through pathogen and host genomics”.

Dr. Guus Bakkeren is a research scientists in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Summerland BC. He has been working on plant pathogen interactions for the past 30 years and with a focus on effectors and fungal pathogens such as smut and cereal rust. The abstract of his talk: The basidiomycete fungus Puccinia triticina (Pt), causing Wheat Leaf Rust disease, is an obligate pathogen of wheat and is a worldwide scourge resulting in significant crop losses annually. The genomics era has in a major way advanced insight into the biology and the evolution of the populations of this fungus, as well as the interaction with its host including defense responses in wheat. I will present an assessment of genetic diversity and mating types among a large collection of Canadian, US and Mexican fungal isolates using whole genome and RNA-derived sequences and put this NA population diversity in a global context. I will also outline approaches to identify and assess functions of Pt avirulence effectors.

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Join the Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens in their webinar:

Dr. Beat Keller and his talk “Genetic and functional analysis of complex host – pathogen interactions in the wheat - powdery mildew pathosystem”.

Professor Beat Keller serves as the Head of the Molecular Plant Biology and Phytopathology Group within the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His contributions to wheat genomics and the investigation of wheat resistance to fungal pathogens have been substantial. Notably, his collaboration with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium led to the completion of the first high-quality wheat genome.

Recently, Dr. Keller's research has concentrated on the molecular interactions between wheat and the powdery mildew pathogen. While his primary focus is on understanding the molecular basis of resistance in wheat, barley, and rye, his findings also have significant implications for plant breeding. Furthermore, his work has prompted important discussions regarding the role of innovative technologies in ensuring food security and reducing pesticide use.

The talk will be held via MS team on Thursday, Oct 31, at 9 am Calgary time.

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Thank you for your interest in our in-person meeting of our Pathogens EWG Meeting Registration for this satellite meeting is free. If participants plan to attend the International Wheat Congress 2024 (IWC2024), they will have to register and pay separately.

Find the Presentation Schedule here: Presentation Schedule

The meeting will start on September 21st at 9:00hrs (Perth/AU Time) am and will close on 18:00Hrs (Perth/AU Time).

To attend pre-registration is mandatory.

--- Deadline for registration is August 30, 2024 ----

Pre-registration has closed.

!NOTE TO EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS! The EWG will hold oral presentation prizes for early career researchers (ECRs) at the symposium. To be eligible, non-member ECRs will need to sign up for Wheat Initiative EWG ECR membership before the Symposium. It's free! You can sign up for membership by following the instructions found in this link (download application form). The winner will receive 300€ (Euro) and runner-up will receive 200€ (Euro). The winner and runner-up will be required to contribute to the Wheat Initiative newsletter thereafter by providing a snapshot of their research and a researcher profile. Great exposure of your research and looks good on the CV!

We look forward for your active participation!

Symposium location

Curtin University of Technology, Bentley Campus

Building 300 Room 217 (300.217:CT)

We will put signs up around the place on the day of the symposium

How to get here?

If you have already booked your accommodation in the city centre near the Perth Convention Centre where the IWC will be held, you can easily catch public transport (https://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/). The Elizabeth Quay Busport and Train station is next to the Perth Convention Centre. You can take;

1.    Take buses 34 and 72 from the Elizabeth Quay Bus Port directly to the Curtin University Hayman Road Busport adjacent to the symposium venue.

2.    Take a train on the Mandurah Line from the Elizabeth Quay Train station. Alight at the Canning Bridge Station. Catch bus 101 to the Curtin University Hayman Road Busport adjacent to the symposium venue.

The other alternative is to take a taxi or ride shares (Ola, DiDi or Uber). There won’t be any traffic jams on a Saturday morning.

Accommodation

If you seek accommodation closer to the symposium venue at Curtin University, try the ‘Nesuto Curtin Perth Hotel’ (https://www.nesuto.com/curtin). It is a new hotel located at Curtin University.

Local restaurants

You can find a few local restaurants and fast-food joints at the Waterford Plaza. But I recommend taking a short trip (via bus) to Victoria Park for more choices.

June Webinar: “Wheat disease monitoring and diagnostics in Alberta, Canada.” by MICHAEL HARDING

9 am Calgary /5 pm Berlin/ 4 pm London

Dr. Michael Harding is the Crop Health Assurance Lead for Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation. He received his BSc in Biology from the University of Lethbridge in 1996, and his PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Arizona in 2004.  Dr. Harding leads crop disease monitoring and surveillance in Alberta and assists with crop health diagnostics. He is also active in research on sanitization and disinfection of agriculture and food surfaces and biofilm microbiology.

Link will be included shortly

“Integration of Enviromics into genetics and breeding”

In natural conditions, environmental conditions play a significant role in shaping phenotypic variation. However, effectively integrating the environmental contributions into genetic analyses and breeding programs remains a challenge. One key bottleneck is identifying key environmental variables from comprehensive whole-season external weather profiles that are associated with phenotypic variation. This webinar will first introduce the CERIS-JGRA framework designed to identify and integrate major environmental variables. This simple and straightforward framework provides an approach for comprehending and predicting phenotype values, thus enhancing our ability to develop resilient crop varieties. Then I will delve into the enviromic prediction approach, which leverages machine learning and deep learning to forecast crop performance over temporal and spatial scales.

Link:

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Developing cisgenic resistance gene stacks in wheat for improved resistance to wheat stem rust disease

by Dr Ming Luo

NOTE: This will be on March 26 in Calgary time but March 27th Australian time

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Abstract

Fungal rust diseases are a major production constraint in wheat with the combined annual global cost of stem rust, stripe rust and leaf rust estimated to be more than $3 billion. The most cost effective and environmentally sustainable approach to controlling rust diseases is via genetic resistance. However, these pathogens evolve rapidly and can quickly overcome resistance genes, particularly when they are deployed individually. Polygenic resistance is believed to provide more durable resistance, however selection of multiple unlinked resistance genes in breeding programs is difficult and expensive and gene combinations quickly separate in future breeding efforts. A more effective strategy for strong, longer-lasting resistance is to combine multiple genes into a single locus with multi-gene cassettes. We have developed wheat lines containing multi-gene cassettes encoding up to five different stem rust resistance genes at single loci. Furthermore, two separate resistance gene stacks, each encoding five wheat stem rust resistance transgenes, have been combined by conventional breeding to generate wheat plants containing an unprecedented level of polygenic stem rust disease resistance. Next generation five gene stacks have now been produced in wheat using a Precision Engineering approach that incorporates only wheat DNA sequences i.e. no selectable markers, cloning scars or Agrobacterium border sequences. These entirely cisgenic plants have the potential for reduced regulatory burden given recent changes to GM legislation in some countries. Cisgenic resistance gene stacks are now also being developed for wheat stripe rust and leaf rust diseases. This cisgenic technology is applicable to other crops for improving disease resistance and for developing other polygenic traits of agronomic significance with single gene inheritance.

Biography

Dr Ming Luo obtained his master’s degree in Agronomy at Sichuan Agricultural University, China in 1989 and PhD in Molecular Genetics at Australian National University, Australia in 2004. He has worked at CSIRO Agriculture and Food since 2004 where he is currently employed as a Senior Research Scientist. His research interests include epigenetic mechanisms that regulate the double fertilization processes in flowering plants. More recently he has been developing durable resistance to wheat stem rust by stacking multiple (five) disease resistant genes at a single locus in wheat. His team has improved upon this strategy to generate large, entirely cisgenic wheat resistance stacks which is a novel technology potentially applicable to many other agricultural crops.

“The contribution of the wheat leaf rust resistance genes Lr34 and Lr67 to multi-pest resistance.”

Dr. McCallum is a senior research scientist at AAFC, Morden Research and Development Centre in Manitoba. His research over the past 28 years has a focus on wheat leaf rust disease in Canada, variation in the causing pathogen, and identification and development of genetic resistance, host pathogen interaction and pathogen evolution.

Thursday on February 22nd (9 am Calgary /5 pm Berlin/4 pm London)

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Title:

"Tracing a cereal killer: Genomics-assisted surveillance and genome evolution of the blast fungus.”

THORSTEN lANGNER is a group leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Biology, Tuebingen Germany. since July, 2023. Research focus: Role of mini-chromosomes in blast fungus genome evolution; immune receptor engineering for wheat blast resistance; pathogen surveillance.

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The WheatIS EWG is holding their annual meeting at PAG in hybrid.

You are invited to join the meeting:

 Schedule: Friday, January 12, 10 AM to 12 PM California time (Pacific Standard Time PST).
On site: room Palm 8 (cf. map in attachment)
Remotely: https://inrae-fr.zoom.us/my/malaux
Audience: the meeting is primarily intended for members of the EWG, but feel free to invite any colleagues interested in the field (on site or remotely).

Please find all details attached in the PDF.

Anders Borgen will be giving his talk titled: Unlocking the resistance to common bunt

Please find the link for the meeting here

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NzkwYzdhOTUtMTMxYy00MzczLTkzZTEtOWNlN2YxZTJlZGJk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%229da98bb1-1857-4cc3-8751-9a49e35d24cd%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2229719dd4-9895-4fd3-8e9e-b8827910d03e%22%7d

9 am Calgary /5 pm Berlin/4 pm London

In the 8th edition in the GFAR Talks series, two eminent speakers will explore how research, that has so far focused on mainstream crops grown as monocultures, requires a paradigm shift if we are to transform the agrifood system.

Emile A. Frison is an expert on agricultural biodiversity, agroecology and sustainable food systems. He is Senior Advisor to the Agroecology Coalition and member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). A Belgian national, he spent his entire career in international agricultural research for development, including six years in Africa in Nigeria and Mauritania. He was Director General of Bioversity International from 2003 to 2013. Since 2013, Dr Frison focuses on advancing sustainable agriculture and food systems. He is the lead author of the IPES-Food report “ From Uniformity to Diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems”. He is a member of the Africa Europe Foundation Strategy Group on Agriculture, and is author or co-author of over 175 scientific, technical and policy papers.

Romano De Vivo has championed sustainable agriculture for over two decades. As a sustainability leader at CropLife International, he steers the organization's environmental initiatives and forges partnerships, prioritizing innovative farming, adaptive food systems, and impactful climate solutions.
Romano earned his doctorate in Agricultural Economics from the University of Salerno. His commitment to lifelong learning also took him to STOA and MIT's Sloan School of Management for his MBA, alongside a Masters in Environmental Governance from the Graduate Institute of Geneva.
Before CropLife, he contributed to sustainability and environmental strategies at global frontrunners Givaudan and Syngenta. Beyond the corporate sphere, Romano engages in public research and shares his expertise as a lecturer at the University of Piacenza and the University of Freiburg's Center for Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.
With roots in Italy and Switzerland, Romano's blended heritage provides a unique lens, positively shaping the future of sustainable agriculture.

The Expert Working Group on Wheat Pathogens presents:

Global Burden of Crop Loss initiative – in pursuit to support data-driven decision making

Anna is a geographer and crop protection modeller with experience working on highly collaborative projects tackling crop pest problems in the USA, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining CABI in 2021 as a Technical Lead on the Global Burden of Crop Loss initiative, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in modelling groups at the Plant Science Department in Cambridge (2018-2021) and at Rothamsted Research (2014-2018). Anna has experience in modelling spatial distribution of host plants, monitoring the spread of pathogens, advising surveillance strategies, working with qualitative farmer survey data, modelling pest climatic niche and pest population dynamics.

Please join on  Wednesday November 8th, 9am Calgary time , 5pm Berlin time, 12am (00:00) Perth time via the link:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTg4YTRlMTAtZWJjNy00ZmVjLWJjZGYtZWJhMGE1YjgxN2Q0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%229da98bb1-1857-4cc3-8751-9a49e35d24cd%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2229719dd4-9895-4fd3-8e9e-b8827910d03e%22%7d

Dr. Viviane Cordovez from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (Wageningen) will give a presentation on;

“Wheat Phyllosphere Yeasts: Diversity And Potential For Improving Plant Resilience To (A)biotic stresses”

Please join the webinar following the link:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2RkZjk0YjEtNTcwZC00NjU0LTk5M2YtNDAzNjIzYTVkZTA4%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%229da98bb1-1857-4cc3-8751-9a49e35d24cd%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2229719dd4-9895-4fd3-8e9e-b8827910d03e%22%7d

When?

Tuesday, Oct 24th, 2023

Berlin, Germany 4pm

Calgary, Canada 8am

The Expert Working Group on Control of Wheat Pathogens would like to invite to their fifth webinar !

Dr. Brande Wulff from the Centre for Desert Agriculture at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia will be speaking about “Harnessing genetic diversity in wheat and its wild relatives for disease resistance”.

Abstract: Genetic diversity for disease resistance has been eroded in bread wheat through polyploidisation, domestication and breeding. We have developed sequence-configured panels of wheat and wild progenitors for high-throughput identification of disease resistance genes by association mapping or mutational genomics [1-4]. Cloned resistance genes can speed up resistance breeding through generation of GM stacks [5] or by conventional marker-assisted selection in combination with speed breeding [6,7]. We propose internationally coordinated efforts to clone and characterize wheat resistance genes to facilitate a more judicious deployment of resistance genes in GM and conventional breeding programmes [8].

Wulff is a molecular plant pathologist and geneticist. He uses high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to identify genes restricting stem rust and Septoria tritici blotch, two major diseases of wheat. His long-term aim is to use cloned genes from wild ancestors of wheat to engineer durable resistance to these diseases in cultivated wheat. Dr. Wulff recently took up a faculty position in the Centre for Desert Agriculture at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. Prior to this he worked for ten years in the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK.

Please join on  Tuesday Oct 3, early morning 6 am Calgary time via the link https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YjZiNTA2MzEtNzkxMC00ZTcxLWFlNDctZGRmYjlhNWM3ZjAw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%229da98bb1-1857-4cc3-8751-9a49e35d24cd%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2229719dd4-9895-4fd3-8e9e-b8827910d03e%22%7d Dr.

This Event is for members only.