Abstract
Hungary’s most important bread cereal is wheat. The increase of profitability of wheat production as well as the reduction of environmental risks imposed by the use of pesticides can be achieved by developing cultivars resistant to pathogens. The primary goal of this proposal is to improve resistance of the breeding material of Martonvásár against powdery mildew (Pm) and wheat dwarf virus (WDV). Our aim is to develop new candidate cultivars by introducing known and novel Pm resistance genes into breeding programs, as well as to identify new sources of resistance. A significant novelty of the proposed work is the application of RNA silencing, a recently discovered molecular biological mechanism, in breeding for resistance against powdery mildew. Virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a powerful technique for high-throughput functional analysis of plant genes. We aim to introduce VIGS technology into wheat breeding. We also intend to use RNA silencing to develop durable resistance agaist powdery mildew by inactivating the Mlo gene. Moreover we propose to develop field and glass house testing methods for the evaluation of WDV resistance to help virus resistance breeding programs.
Hungary