ARS | Publication request: High speed sorting of Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels

Submitted to: National Fusarium Head Blight Forum Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: November 26, 2012
Publication Date: December 4, 2012
Citation: Pearson, T.C., Halvorson, S., Clark, A. 2012. High speed sorting of Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels. In: S. Canty, A. Clark, A. Anderson-Scully and D. Van Sanford (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 National Fusarium Head Blight Forum (pp. 88-92). East Lansing, MI/Lexington, KY: U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab Inititiative.

Technical Abstract: Recent studies have found that resistance to Fusarium fungal infection can be inherited in wheat from one generation to another. However, there is not yet available a cost effective method to separate Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels from undamaged kernels so that wheat breeders can take advantage of inherited disease resistance. In this study, a low cost, high speed sorter capable of classifying single wheat kernels on the basis of visible and near-infrared light was tested for its ability to segregate Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels. The sorter was tested on nine different varieties of hard red spring wheat and nine breeder samples of soft red winter wheat. For both hard red spring and soft red winter wheat, the sorter was able to remove nearly all of the kernels showing severe symptoms of Fusarium damage, such as those with the "tombstone" appearance. The sorter was also able to remove most of the Fusarium damaged kernels that only had moderate levels of symptoms. For hard red spring wheat, the sorter removed over 90% of the Fusarium damaged kernels while erroneously rejecting about 12% of the undamaged kernels. For soft red winter wheat, the sorter was able to remove 93% of the Fusarium damaged kernels while erroneously rejecting 24% of the undamaged kernels. The cost of this sorter should be approximately $3000 and has a throughput of approximately 20 kernels per second so this could be a viable tool for breeders to use to segregate undamaged from Fusarium damaged wheat kernels.