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New study attempts to shatter cold hardiness barrier in winter wheat

A new study aims to expand Canada’s winter wheat production area by determining the genetics that control cold hardiness in the crop. Cold hardiness is a key obstacle to growing winter wheat in Western Canada, says Dr. Brian Fowler, University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre (CDC) winter wheat breeder.

“Winter wheat offers many advantages. Increased yield potential, soil conservation benefits, lower herbicide inputs, reduced disturbance to waterfowl habitat and planting flexibility are all benefits of winter wheat,” says Fowler. “Hopefully, this research will help more Prairie farmers profit from those advantages.”

Most common winter cereal species yield significantly higher than spring cereal species because of better moisture-use efficiency and their ability to extend the growing season. “Industry Canada, the federal ministry responsible for encouraging research and development, has estimated that solving the cold hardiness puzzle in winter wheat alone would increase Prairie farmers’ annual revenue by $100 million,” says Fowler.

In the new three-year study, Fowler and other research partners will examine the mechanisms of cold hardiness. This research is partially supported by farmers through the Wheat Check-off Fund, administered by Western Grains Research Foundation. The research is also part of Genome Canada’s recently announced $17.5 million research program delving into the functional genomics of stress in crops.

The study aims to identify winter wheat’s cold hardiness genes and develop molecular markers for those genes. “This will provide breeding programs with the tools to develop cultivars with increased cold hardiness. We also want to examine regional differences in variety adaptation to optimize winter wheat production,” he explains.

The key to improving cold hardiness is gaining a better understanding of how the main components of the system that regulates cold hardiness work together. “Basically, plant development mechanisms, such as vernalization, act as the ‘master switches’ that help regulate the level of cold hardiness in a plant,” he says. “Our focus is on how those master switches interact with the genes that control and determine the level of cold hardiness.

“This is a complex system and the more we know about it, the more we can tweak it to increase cold hardiness.”

Part of the focus has included the development of a winter wheat survival model that can be adapted to other winter cereals. “This model will be the framework for further understanding cold hardiness in other winter cereal crops.”

The cold hardiness research is fully integrated into the CDC winter wheat program. “This means we can take advantage of any findings that come our way and incorporate them into the breeding program,” says Fowler. “Farmers are gaining interest in winter wheat for a variety of reasons, none the least of which is the fact that winter wheat typically escapes Fusarium Head Blight and midge infestations.”

“Winter cereals dominate in regions of the world where cold hardiness levels allow for acceptable levels of winter survival,” says Fowler. “We are trying to increase the competitiveness of western Canadian producers by giving them some of the same cropping options as other farmers around the world.”

The Wheat Check-off Fund allocates $3 million annually for wheat breeding in Western Canada. Other funders of the cold hardiness project include the National Research Council, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council and SeCan.

WGRF information at www.westerngrains.com

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