There are many types of research going on at the University of Saskatchewan, from cures for cancers to water security and quantum physics.

One research project is geared to help farmers dealing with the fungal disease Fusarium head blight.

Research officer at USask’s Crop Development Centre, Dr. Lipu Wang, says they are a large multidisciplinary team and there are two objectives to the three year project.

The first is to develop wheat with a stronger genetic resistance to Fusarium head blight.

Dr. Wang explains that FHB is linked to short plants, but wheat with shorter stalks is what farmers want because less energy goes to growing the stalk and more to growing the seeds.

So, the goal is to find new genes to make shorter plants which are resistant to FHB.

The second objective is to see what’s actually happening inside the plants, so when they become infected, researchers can understand the changes.

For this, the researchers are taking advantage of the equipment at the Canadian Light Source on the USask campus.

Dr. Wang explains that a PhD student is studying and imaging infected plants at the CLS.

The goal is to eventually develop portable equipment that can identify which kernels or wheat spikes are diseased, which currently is quite laborious and inexact.

The team was awarded $825,000 over three years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council’s Alliance Grants.

Industry partners Western Grains Research Foundation and the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission are providing cash and in-kind contributions of $412,500, for a total project value of 1.24 million dollars.

(with files from cjww)