Wheat experts gather in Mexico as battle intensifies against plant plague

CIUDAD OBREGON, MEXICO

…One of the alarming hallmarks of Ug99 is that in Kenya it has mutated and overcome two additional major stem rust resistance genes called Sr24 and Sr36 that had been effective against the original form of Ug99.

An update from the Global Cereal Rust Monitoring System shows that the mutated fungus could be headed for South Asia, where farmers, many of them poor subsistence growers, produce 19 percent of the world’s wheat for a population of 1.4 billion people. The monitoring system also has implemented wind models showing that Ug99, which has moved out of eastern Africa to the Middle East, could soon travel to the Caucasus, Central Asia, or Afghanistan

Scientists at the conference also considered new evidence that global warming could send stem rust into parts of the world where it has never been seen before. For example, Ug99 already has been found in a part of Iran where no wheat stem rust of any type had ever been documented.

EurekAlert