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ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research » Research » Research Project #448382

Research Project: Validate the Functions of Wheat Candidate Genes for Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight and Hessian fly Using Gene Editing

Location: Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research

Project Number: 3020-21000-012-026-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 25, 2025
End Date: Sep 24, 2026

Objective:
The objective is to use new gene editing technology to knock out candidate genes to determine the causal wheat genes for disease and insect resistance. The targeted disease will be wheat Fusarium head blight, and the targeted insect will be Hessian fly. The work proposed will knock out selected candidate genes from finely mapped QTL regions in different wheat cultivars, and transform some target genes into Fielder.

Approach:
1. Cooperator will use Crisper-Cas9 based gene editing method to knock out candidate resistance genes to both Fusarium head blight and Hessian fly in wheat 2. Cooperator will use Agrobacteria-based approach for target gene transformation.