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2Blades Foundation Newsletter
Issue 3 | April 2017
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This issue of our newsletter highlights news about wheat diseases and progress in advancing solutions for farmers. Wheat provides roughly 20% of global protein and calories and is the world's most highly traded agricultural commodity by volume. In many low-income countries wheat is the most imported food product. This high level of dependence creates vulnerability to price spikes and disruptions in supply.
Rust diseases have long been a major constraint on wheat production, but last year's outbreak of wheat blast disease in Bangladesh raised grave concerns and led to the establishment of the Open Wheat Blast initiative by a community of scientists who helped analyze the strains. When it was reported earlier this year that the disease had spread into India,
the world's second largest wheat producer, Open Wheat Blast sprung into action again to provide analytical support. At present, there are no effective controls once a crop is infected and the government is burning infected fields in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.
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State government officers set fire to wheat in Sonpukur village on Chapra block in Nadia district of West Bengal, India.(Image Credit: Hindustan Times / Subhankar Chakraborty)
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Also of concern for wheat production is the news from
Australia that fungicides are losing effectiveness against powdery mildew strains, and similarly
in the UK
against Septoria and net blotch. With fewer options, it is more important than ever to have effective, environmentally sustainable, and durable genetic resistance for crops. Through our development programs around the world, we are working to advance such solutions.
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Simplot's Innate Generation 2 potato was recently approved by the EPA and USDA and contains the first commercialized NLR Resistance gene. It comes from a contain a gene from a South American potato relative and provides resistance to certain strains of late blight, potentially reducing fungicide applications by up to 45%.
Photo credit: SImplot
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Program Spotlight: Wheat Stem Rust
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One of the most potent threats to global food security is wheat stem rust, a damaging fungal disease. Throughout history, outbreaks of stem rust have caused yield losses of 50-100% leading to famine and economic insecurity for millions. Norman Borlaug, working at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), developed high-yielding wheat lines with resistance to stem rust. These varieties were quickly adopted around the world during the Green Revolution and are credited with saving the lives of millions of people.
Borlaug's rust resistant wheat stood up to stem rust for nearly 50 years, but in 1998 a new strain emerged in Uganda that was capable of overcoming resistance and causing devastating losses. Since its emergence, Ug99 has spread throughout East Africa and the Middle East, spawning 13 different strains that decimate wheat yields, particularly in areas where smallholder farmers do not have access to or cannot afford effective fungicides. Other new races such as Digalu and a new Mediterranean strain have also emerged, further endangering wheat production in some of the world's most productive and vulnerable regions. Prof. Phil Pardey and colleagues at the University of Minnesota have estimated that without resistant varieties, stem rust could cause annual global losses of over $1 billion. It is therefore crucial that we become well equipped to combat the ever-changing rust pathogen with durable resistance traits.
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Scientists and breeders worldwide have responded to this threat, and efforts by CIMMYT and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative have made great strides in addressing Ug99 through conventional breeding programs, identifying genes conferring resistance to Ug99 and transferring them successfully into elite wheat lines through genetic crosses to create resistant varieties.
At 2Blades, we pursue a complementary approach. Working with rust and wheat scientists at CSIRO (Australia), University of Minnesota, and the John Innes Center (UK), we have isolated new resistance genes from wheat and its wild relatives, and assembled them together into durable resistance cassettes for introduction into wheat lines. In the face of other emerging disease threats to wheat, including new stem rust strains, stripe and other rusts, and newly emerging diseases like wheat blast, such cassettes can be further combined with other disease resistances and beneficial traits without disrupting the existing beneficial gene combinations achieved through breeding. We have recently partnered with CIMMYT to test these gene cassettes in elite, high yielding varieties.
Read more about our stem rust program on the 2Blades website.
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In January, 2Blades announced a collaboration with Monsanto and The Sainsbury Laboratory to discover novel sources of genetic resistance to diseases of corn. Stalk and ear rot diseases are endemic across major corn growing regions, with few effective control measures available. The effort combines the strong fundamental science at TSL, the translational capacity of the 2Blades Group, and the proven delivery channels of Monsanto to bring solutions to these chronic problems for corn farmers.
Photo: New 2Blades Group members will work in collaboration with Monsanto and TSL to identify new genetic resistance to fungal diseases of corn.
L-R: Lesley Milnes, Freddy Boutrot, Marion Navarri, Carolina Grandellis
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A.G.R. Seeds Ltd, Israel, has completed a non-exclusive license from 2Blades for access to the bs5 gene from pepper for marker-assisted breeding. The gene confers resistance to bacterial spot disease, one of the most devastating diseases of peppers grown in warm, moist environments.
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2Blades team visits Brazil
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The 2Blades Group recently visited Brazil for discussions with our collaborator Prof. Sergio Brommenschenkel and his team from Universidade Federal de Viçosa and our partners at DuPont-Pioneer.
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Stability in the 21st Century
External Affairs Director, Jack Westwood, attended the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. At the event, the Council released their latest report "Stability in the 21st Century" which emphasizes that investing in agricultural development promotes national security and economic opportunity, both for low income countries and for the US.
The report specifically named crop disease resistance as a priority area for research investment and encourages the US to make food and nutrition security central to its diplomatic and national security strategy.
Read the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' full report
here.
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Dan Glickman (Chicago Council), Nick Austin (Gates Foundation), and Josette Lewis (UC Davis) discuss the future of agricultural R&D with Rajul Pandya-Lorch (IFPRI).
Photo credit: Chicago Council via Twitter
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2Blades Chairman, Roger Freedman, and Program Director, Lynne Reuber visited CIMMYT HQ in El Batan, Mexico to meet with Dr. Ravi Singh and Dr. Kanwarpal Dhugga and discuss progress towards creation of stem rust resistant wheat lines under our new partnership. Here they are inspecting a wheat trial for symptoms of disease.
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