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ARS 5-Minute Reads
Hessian fly on wheat (USDA-ARS)
Scientists Find Gene’s “Playbook” for Protecting Wheat from Top Insect Pest
ARS researchers and their collaborators have decoded a gene in wheat, labeled H13, that protects some varieties of the grain crop from Hessian fly larvae, whose appetite claims approximately $100 million’s worth of the annual U.S. wheat harvest.
The team’s discovery—reported in the August issue of Science Advances—opens the door for faster methods of screening wheat varieties for the Hessian fly resistance gene and transferring it to those that are susceptible to the pest.
Locating H13’s precise whereabouts on one of wheat’s 42 chromosomes also enabled the next steps: sequencing and identifying H13—marking the first such advance made in wheat for an insect resistance gene. Learn more...
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The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact. |
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Research Service
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