Chinese and foreign scientists have found a new gene for wheat to fight jaundice

Chinese and foreign scientists have teamed up to find a new gene for rust resistance, YrAS2388, from the barley, one of the wheat ancestral species, and import it into ordinary wheat. This provides a new way to effectively prevent and treat wheat strip rust, known as jaundice.
research, which was carried out by Sichuan Agricultural University in collaboration with Shandong Agricultural University, the University of Idaho, Washington State University, the University of California, Davis, and other universities, was published recently in the international academic journal Nature-Newsletter.
wheat strip rust is a common, fast-spreading, harmful fungal disease, which damages wheat leaves, affects wheat grain development, reduces grain quality, often results in wheat production reduction of 10% to 30%. Using disease-resistant genes, cultivating disease-resistant varieties is an important means to effectively control strip rust.
the early 1980s, Professor Yan Ji of Sichuan Agricultural University and others discovered that wheat was distributed in China's Xinjiang and Yellow River basins. Festival wheat is a wild plant, is one of the wheat ancestral species, many born in barren grassland, strong vitality.
, researchers at Sichuan Agricultural University conducted a large number of studies on the wild species and identified the explicit rust-resistant gene YrAS2388 from the festival wheat population around 2000. The rust-resistant gene YrAS2388 is found only in barley and synthetic wheat made from barley, but is not detected in common wheat and other wheat species.
Subsequently, Sichuan Agricultural University, in cooperation with Shandong Agricultural University and other units, completed the cloning of the gene and developed functional markers based on the gene sequence, which can be used to achieve molecular-assisted selection of YrAS2388 and accelerate the gene's transfer to wheat varieties.
, Sichuan Agricultural University has imported the YrAS2388 gene and selected a new line of anti-strip rust, wheat 1675. The product line has recently passed the production test in Sichuan Province.
, an associate professor at Sichuan Agricultural University, is the co-first author of the paper. He said it took nearly two decades from the discovery of disease-resistant genes to the selection of good new breeds. This research result provides new genetic resources for improving the resistance level of crops such as wheat and barley, and is of great significance to ensure the safety of grain production in China. (Source: Xinhua News Agency, Wu Xiaoying, Zhang Junxian
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