Visit the BGRI Web site E-mail BGRI January 2011 BGRI E-Newsletter Contents Message from Ronnie Coffman DRRW Planning and Partnering in India Announcements BGRI Briefs Upcoming Events Recent Publications Awards Obituary: Donald V. McVey

Message from Ronnie Coffman, Vice Chair of the BGRI Dear colleagues, The availability of , a food staple in so many developing countries, is once again fueling rising food prices. The high price of food, and wheat in particular, sparks concern among world leaders because food security issues are frequently behind violent protests. Most recently, they were a factor in the unrest among Tunisians, who toppled their president while neighboring states sped up their purchases of wheat to secure supplies. High prices are being fueled by the devastating floods in Australia, fire and drought in (which closed their export markets), strong North African demand, and the dry season in the U.S. Analysts are saying that wheat futures may not reach their 2008 peak, but some estimate prices as high as US$9 bushel. These prices are a further call to action for wheat scientists around the world to continue to breed new varieties that are resistant to the vagaries of drought and flooding, and the persistent challenges of and yellow rust. Wheat rust scientists, including molecular geneticists and pathologists, as well as wheat breeders and others with an interest in the rusts of wheat, particularly yellow rust and stem rust will be gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota, 13-16 June 2011, for the BGRI 2011 Technical Workshop. St. Paul is home to the USDA Cereal Disease Laboratory, and the University of Minnesota, Norman Borlaug’s alma mater and the place of Stakman’s classic work on stem rust. The deadline for early registration is extended to February 15. Take advantage of the $100 in savings if you register for the workshop before February 15. You may register online at http://guest.cvent.com/d/ydql2y/1Q. Poster abstracts are due February 28 to Anna Hammond Garber: [email protected]. The North American Rust Workers meeting will take place in St. Paul on June 12, prior to the 2011 BGRI Technical Workshop. We are grateful to the University of Minnesota and the USDA Cereal Disease Lab for hosting the 2011 meeting. In the meantime, the Third International Group Meeting on Wheat Productivity Enhancement under Changing Climate will be held 9-12 February 2011 at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in

Dharwad, in Karnataka, India, hosted by Dr. R.R. Hanchinal, Vice-Chancellor. http://www.uasd.edu/3rdIGM/wheatintmeet.pdf I also hope to see many of you at the International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, which will be held 18-21 April, 2011 at ICARDA, in Aleppo, Syria, in collaboration with CIMMYT and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative. On behalf of consumers and the world’s wheat farmers, I applaud all of your efforts on crop improvement, disease resistance, quality improvement and resource management in the face of biotic and abiotic stresses. Norman Borlaug may have said, “Rust never sleeps,” but he could also have been talking about wheat scientists. Cheers, Ronnie Coffman, Vice Chair Borlaug Global Rust Initiative

DRRW planning and partnering in India: Oct 19-20 About 50 wheat scientists and rust workers from both the public and private sectors convened in New Delhi, India, on October 19-20, 2010, for a workshop on “Strategic Planning and Partnering for Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat.” The meeting was organized by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW)-South Asia in association with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The meeting brought together scientists from India’s agricultural universities, private seed and input companies, as well as policy makers to review projects funded by the DRRW, ICAR and DBT, and to establish recommendations for collaboratively mitigating wheat rust in India. The possibility of establishing public- private partnerships for strengthening research and knowledge sharing among different public and private institutes involved in wheat research was also discussed. Among the recommendations were the following: to Wheat pathologist Indu Sharma (left) from Punjab Agricultural University talks with finalize a common nomenclature system for the research geneticist Mike Pumphrey at the identification of rust pathotypes prior to the St. Paul Strategic Planning and Partnering for Durable Minnesota meeting in June 2011; to establish protocols Rust Resistance in Wheat workshop in New for sample collection and dispatch to diagnostic labs in Delhi, 19-20 Oct. India, South Africa, Denmark, the U.S. and Canada; to integrate surveillance in the breeding programs of the private sector in India; to revive the SAARC nursery maintained by the Directorate of Wheat Research; to test all the Ug99 resistance genes with known robust markers for deployment in India; and to be strategic and cooperative about the use and stewardship of the limited available number of rust resistant genes.

Progress on the recommendations will be reviewed in the South Asia sub-group meeting during the St. Paul meeting in June. “In order for durable resistance to rust to be established in India, it is extremely important that India lead the strategic deployment of resistance genes for India and South Asia and join the international movement to stack and introgress three or more genes into the varieties being developed for durable rust resistance,” said Ronnie Coffman, director of international programs at Cornell University and the principal investigator for the DRRW project, in his opening remarks. The proceedings of the meeting are available at http://www.globalrust.org/traction/permalink/advocacy2826

Announcements Monsanto Beachell Borlaug International Scholars Program APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 1, 2011. To apply or learn more about the program, go to http://www.monsanto.com/mbbischolars Applications for the third round of funding from Monsanto’s Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program (MBBISP) are currently being accepted now through February 1, 2011. Funds are available for scholars pursuing a PhD in wheat or rice plant breeding. MBBISP is a five-year, $10 million program to support scholars who are focusing their work on addressing global challenges of rice and wheat. Texas AgriLife Research administers the grants. Please note that scholars must complete part of their PhD program in Australia, Canada, Western or the United States and part in another country. Students work with their advising professor or scientist who then submits the application for the student.

BBSRC announces research competition to combat biotic and abiotic stresses. DEADLINE FOR OUTLINE PROPOSALS: March 31, 2011. For details about the call for proposals, go to http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/scprid/ In an important move to harness science to improve food security for millions of people in the developing world, research funders from the U.K. and U.S., and government departments in the U.K. and India have announced a new $32 million joint research initiative. The funding is available through the Sustainable Crop Production Research for International Development (SCPRID) initiative, which is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Department for International Development (DFID), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Department of Biotechnology of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The focus of the program is to understand and counter the effects of abiotic (drought, temperature, salinity, nutrient deficiency, etc.) and biotic stresses (pathogens, pests, weeds) that constrain food crop production in developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Funding will be awarded to teams that can show that their research can improve food security and increase sustainable crop yields within the next 5-10 years. The emphasis is on cassava, maize, rice, sorghum and wheat. For more information about the initiative, visit http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/food- security/2011/110111-pr-developing-countries.aspx

Deadlines for rust screening submissions to Kenya and Ethiopia The screening facilities of East-Africa cater to two cycles per year. It is important to strictly adhere to deadlines. Material received after the season-specified deadline given below will be sown in the next season. DEADLINES FOR SENDING MATERIAL FOR SCREENING: Spring wheat: Main season: 1st week of May (Kenya and Ethiopia) Off-season: 1st week of November (Kenya); 30 November (Ethiopia) Winter wheat: Vernalization requirement prior to planting in field (minimum 8 weeks in advance depending on the material sent). For information and the protocols for sending germplasm for screening in Kenya and Ethiopia, visit http://www.globalrust.org/traction/permalink/screening38. Or contact Sridhar Bhavani (Kenya): [email protected] or Dr. Bedada Girma (Ethiopia): [email protected].

RUSTGENE e-list launched Many workers around the world are making great progress on enhancing resistance to cereal rusts. As new methods and materials are developed, there is a greater need to rapidly share information about how to use them most effectively. Toward that end, Bob Bowden (USDA-ARS, Manhattan, KS) and Erick De Wolf (Kansas State University) have started a new email listserv called RUSTGENES. The purpose of the listserv will be to promote international discussion on the use and stewardship of resistance genes for cereal rusts, with an emphasis on wheat stem rust. Topics that might be addressed include: phenotyping, resistance sources, germplasm releases, markers, gene postulation, regional deployment strategies, pyramiding, breeding strategies, performance, information resources, etc. To avoid spam messages, this is a controlled access listserv. Only listserv members will be able to post messages. If you are interested in joining the list, please send a message to Bob Bowden ([email protected]) or Eric DeWolf ([email protected]) and they will add your email address. Please also include your full name in the message.

BGRI Briefs New stem rust resistance gene protocols hosted on MASWheat Colin Hiebert, Tom Fetch and colleagues recently reported in Theoretical and Applied Genetics that two Canadian hard red spring cultivars of wheat— “Peace” and “AC Cadillac” — are resistant to Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici Ug99 and its variants at the seedling stage and in the field. The scientists analyzed two mapping populations derived from each resistant cultivar and found an apparently new gene temporarily designated SrCad that maps on chromosome arm 6DS. Hiebert and Fetch, both with the in Manitoba, Canada, posted the description and protocols for SrCad on MASWheat, a comprehensive website for wheat molecular breeding resources. WASWheat contains detailed protocols for marker assisted selection including protocols for stem rust resistance genes Sr2, Sr22, Sr24, Sr25, Sr26 and Sr36, Sr39, SrCad and SrWeb. MASWheat also is the home of learning resources such as animations, interactive training tools, and an online course on gene mapping. Viewers can test a beta version of a skill test for scoring glutenin gels. MASWheat is supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project of the BGRI. Visit MASWheat at http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu.

UC Davis receives $25 M to lead major wheat research project On January 12, University of California, Davis received $25 million to develop new varieties of wheat and . Jorge Dubcovsky of UC, Davis and Gary Muehlbauer of the University of Minnesota will head the research team. The USDA-National Institute for Food and Agriculture grant will allow Dubcovsky and his colleagues to focus on biological and environmental stresses to wheat that are caused, at least in part, by alterations in weather patterns. The Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural Project, or T-CAP, will include 55 university and USDA researchers, plant breeders and educators from 21 states. The team will identify favorable gene variants for disease resistance, water and nitrogen use efficiency and yield improvement from a diverse representation of barley and wheat germplasm to mitigate impacts of climate variability on agricultural productivity. The disease resistance aspects of the grant are coordinated by Mike Pumphrey (Washington State University) and Brian Steffenson (U Minnesota), for wheat and barley respectively. Jim Kolmer and Yue Jin, cereal rust scientists at the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory and Xianming Chen at USDA-ARS Pullman, Washington will be responsible for rust screenings under controlled environments, which will be complemented by field evaluations of adult plant resistance throughout the barley and wheat growing regions of the U.S. carried by the public breeding programs. Jim Kolmer and Yue Jin, cereal rust scientists at the USDA- ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory will lead the screening activity of the project, which will be conducted jointly by the University of Minnesota and Kansas State University. The wheat project is one of two USDA-funded projects at UC Davis to develop climate-change- tolerant plants and new bioenergy sources. “Each of these projects features transdisciplinary, regional, integrated teams, including scientists from institutions that represent underserved populations,” said Roger Beachy, director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. “This approach represents a new paradigm in how USDA science can best solve critical issues facing agriculture today.” For more information about the project, visit http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9726 For information about the screening activity, contact Jim Kolmer [email protected].

New Stripe Rust Strain with virulence in triticale The University of Sydney’s Colin Wellings reports that testing completed by the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program has shown a new stripe rust pathotype that is a threat to several popular triticale varieties. The research was supported by growers and the Australian government through the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) of Australia. “It was the first rust sample I received for the season and it took a while for us to determine it was a new strain,” Wellings said. “We’re now going back and checking other samples received during the season to determine how widespread the new pathotype might be.” According to Wellings, like the Yr17 pathotype affecting wheat crops, the new triticale stripe rust strain appears to have emerged from the current dominant “Western Australian” stripe rust pathotype. He said the new variant of this pathotype had implications for wheat producers. “The new pathotype may increase the stripe rust pressure on wheat because it is an additional direct threat to highly susceptible wheat varieties,” he said. “It potentially broadens the population base from which new pathotypes can emerge, and it increases the potential for stripe rust build-up on out-of- season triticale volunteers or early-sown triticale crops. “Triticale growers will need to pay more attention to managing stripe rust, particularly in early-sown crops. Several of the susceptible varieties are dual-purpose, sown early for grazing, which maximizes the chance of disease carryover from one season to the next, and for early-season disease build-up,” said Wellings. Go to Get Farming Australia for the full version of this article. For more information about the cereal rust control program at the University of Sydney, visit http://sydney.edu.au/agriculture/plant_breeding_institute/cereal_rust/index.shtml

Arming young scientists to combat global wheat rusts To address the looming threat of Ug99 and the related spreading variants of wheat stem rust, members of the BGRI organized the second hands-on training course this year, entitled “Standardization of stem rust field notes and germplasm evaluation, with discussions on yellow and brown rust.” The course was held during 5-12 October 2010 at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) research station in Njoro, Kenya. Conveniently, this time frame coincided with the peak note-taking period for main stem-rust nursery at KARI-Njoro. Over 60

participants and resource personnel were involved in the training course organized by CIMMYT, ICARDA, KARI, and Cornell University. The course’s objective was to coordinate international efforts to address the ongoing threat of Ug99 and other virulent stem rust races. To accomplish this, the training focused on standardizing methods of recording, reporting, and interpreting stem rust observations as well as Scientists examine wheat during the October training at KARI in Njoro. evaluating breeding materials. The participants consisted of plant pathologists and wheat breeders from countries already and /or potentially affected by the new strain of stem rust Ug99 (Puccinia graminis). The course also gave participants an opportunity to foster partnerships with global researchers and leaders in the area of rust research. The eager-to-learn trainees actively participated in the workshop, absorbing knowledge and sharing their experiences with rust researchers. Rust scientists from Australia, Canada, the United States, CIMMYT, and ICARDA, covered various topics on pathology, genetics, breeding and biotechnology. In addition, scientists and participants had the opportunity to field-test wheat germplasm from many countries (including their own), CIMMYT, and ICARDA for resistance to Ug99. Participants were also updated on the recent problems of yellow rust and leaf rust. The participants felt that the training course was very useful and should continue annually to have more young scientists trained for the future. “The training event was great, with excellent arrangements and coordination,” said the chairman of BGRI, Ronnie Coffman. The training course was coordinated by CIMMYT wheat scientist Sridhar Bhavani, facilitated by KARI scientists, and overall was a great success. Adapted from CIMMYT’s blog posted by Kelly Berry, Oct 25, 2010. http://blog.cimmyt.org/?s=Rust

Upcoming Events BGRI 2011 Technical Workshop Register NOW to save $100 on the workshop fee. June 13-16, 2011. St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Register now for a $100 discount on the fee to attend this important gathering of wheat rust scientists, molecular geneticists and pathologists, wheat breeders and anyone with an interest in the rusts of wheat. Poster abstracts are due by February 28 to Anna Garber Hammond [email protected] The early registration discount has been extended to February 15. Register now and save $100. Once you register, we must receive your discounted payment by March 1. If you miss the discount deadline, you will be charged the full rate. If you have already registered, you must put through the payment before March 1. Register online at http://globalrust.org by February 15 to take advantage of the discount. As soon as you register you will receive documents necessary for a visa application. For more information visit http://globalrust.org

International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium International symposium to focus on wheat stripe rust epidemic and research April 18-21, 2011 ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria Organizers: ICARDA, FAO; Co-Organizers: CIMMYT, BGRI

In 2009-10, the outbreak of Yr27 has caused significant yield losses in Syria, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Ethiopia, and Kenya, threatening the food security and livelihood of resource poor farmers.

Severe epidemics of stripe rust have been reported in Morocco, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Syria in recent years. This symposium will address the current global status of wheat stripe rust epidemics and formalize regional and international stripe rust research and resource mobilization platforms in the face of recent concerns on food security and climate change impacts. For more information: visit http://icardablog.wordpress.com/category/announcements/ or contact Dr. Michael Baum, [email protected]

Wheat Productivity Enhancement under Changing Climate Third International Group Meeting February 9-12, 2011 University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, India Organizers: UAS and Directorate of Wheat Research, ICAR This meeting will bring together scientists, extension workers, farming community members, and policy makers to create an awareness of the impact of climate change and to develop strategies to enhance productivity, quality, and value addition. For more information visit http://www.uasd.edu/3rdIGM/wheatintmeet.pdf

2011 BGRI Communications and IT Planning Workshop Web and communications sharing and strategic planning January 31-February 2 FAO, Rome, Italy Organizer: Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project The overall goal of this meeting is to have the key people working on BGRI web and communications come together to share what they are working on and do some strategic planning for the future. After this meeting, each institution/partner should have a clearer idea of all the information and data that is available on the web in regard to wheat, as well as a clear plan for gathering, sharing and storing information/data moving forward. Participants will be coming from ICARDA, CIMMYT, the University of Arhus, University of California-Davis, University of Minnesota, FAO, ISAAA, Burness Communications, and the DRRW.

Recent Publications Targeted Introgression of a Wheat Stem Rust Resistance Gene by DNA Marker-assisted Chromosome Engineering (2011) Niu,Zhixia; Klindworth,Daryl L.; Friesen,Timothy L.; Chao,Shiaoman; Jin,Yue; Cai,Xiwen; Xu,Steven S. Journal: Genetics http://www.globalrust.org/traction/permalink/references907

Delivering rust resistant wheat to farmers: a step towards increased food security Joshi,A.; Azab,M.; Mosaad,M.; Moselhy,M.; Osmanzai,M.; Gelalcha,S.; Bedada,G.; Bhatta,M.; Hakim,A.; Malaker,P.; Haque,M.; Tiwari,T.; Majid,A.; Jalal Kamali,M.; Bishaw,Z.; Singh,R.; Payne,T.; Braun,H. Journal: Euphytica http://www.globalrust.org/traction/permalink/references903

An accurate DNA marker assay for stem rust resistance gene Sr2 in wheat Mago,R.; Brown-Guedira,G.; Dreisigacker,S.; Breen,J.; Jin,Y.; Singh,R.; Appels,R.; Lagudah,E.; Ellis,J.; Spielmeyer,W. Journal: Theoretical and Applied Genetics http://www.globalrust.org/traction/permalink/references896

Awards

BGRI website wins award for social impact The BGRI received a 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award on November 19 for its website www.globalrust.org. The website is the publicly available web-based knowledge solution used by wheat scientists, agricultural research organizations, policymakers and others who are engaged in combating Ug99 and the other mutant variants of stem rust that threaten the food security of 40 percent of the world’s population who depend on wheat as a staple.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) received the award in the Business-to-Consumer International division in the “Social Impact” category, which was announced at the Forrester EMEA Marketing & Strategy Forum, in London, November 18-19.

“Traveling through Ethiopia with some of the top scientists involved in the fight against wheat rust gave us a unique opportunity to find out what kind of website would be most helpful to communicate scientific data and knowledge quickly and effectively,” said Stefan Einarson, Stefan Einarson (left) of Cornell receiving director of information technologies for international the 2010 Forrester Groundswell Award on programs at Cornell, who was in London to receive the behalf of the BGRI website team. award. The Traction TeamPage content management system from Traction Software is a social software solution that combines wiki, blog, tagging, activity streams, discussion and social networking capabilities in a secure, scalable Enterprise 2.0 Social Software platform. “We wanted to engage wheat scientists and promote multidimensional engagement,” said Jenny Nelson, former communications director for the BGRI. “We were looking for the ability to mix social, mobile, multichannel, and media to make it easier for these high-value scientists to work together.”

The Forrester Groundswell Awards, now in their fourth year, recognize excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications. This year, there were more than 130 entries to the Forrester Groundswell Awards in four divisions including Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Management, and International. For more information about the Forrester Groundswell Awards visit www.forrester.com/events/ The BGRI website can be found at http://www.globalrust.org/ AAFC honors rust researcher as Woman in History Dr. Margaret Newton was recognized during Women’s History Month in Canada, October 2010. During the 1920s and into the 1940s, Newton worked at Canada’s department of agriculture, now Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, where her research contributed significantly to the control of wheat stem rust, which destroyed at least 30 million bushels of wheat a year in during the mid 1900s. Born in in April 1887, Margaret Newton grew up on a farm in western . In 1918, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, the first woman to complete all the degree requirements at Macdonald College and one of the first women in Canada to earn a degree in agriculture. She completed doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota and graduated in 1922, becoming the first Canadian woman to earn a Ph.D. in agriculture. A renowned scientist, Dr. Newton received awards

at the national and international level. She was elected as a fellow of the in 1942, the second woman to be so honored at that time. In 1956, the University of Minnesota presented her with its Outstanding Achievement Award, and in 1969, the University of Saskatchewan awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws. Newton was inducted into the Canadian Science Hall of Fame in 1991, and in 2008 she was inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame. A plaque from Margaret Newton at one of the first plantings Parks Canada in honor of Dr. Newton was recently at the Dominion Rust Lab, , installed in front of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Manitoba, about 1926 or 1927. Canada Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg. Dr. Margaret Newton, who died in 1971, is remembered as an important contributor to Canada's world-renowned wheat industry. As a pioneer in agricultural research, she made a significant contribution to the economy of western Canada. AAFC is proud and privileged to say that Dr. Newton is a part of its history. Thanks to Brent McCallum of the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg for suggesting Dr. Newton and her achievements be recognized for Women's History Month 2010. --Donna Mitchell, AAFC

Obituary Dr. Donald V. McVey Dr. Donald V. McVey, retired USDA-ARS Research Plant Pathologist, Cereal Disease Laboratory, St. Paul, passed away on December 16, 2010. He was 88 years old. Don retired from the Agricultural Research Service in 2001 after more than 40 years of service. His research played a pivotal role in the protection of cereal crops from leaf and stem rust, especially in spring and winter wheat cultivars in the Central and Northern Great Plains. Don began his career with ARS in 1960 working in Puerto Rico testing wheat accessions for resistance to race 15B of stem rust, which had caused serious losses in wheat in1953 and 1954. In 1965 Don was transferred to the Cooperative Rust Laboratory. Don was best known for his work in testing wheat breeding lines for resistance to stem and leaf rust resistance. Don excelled in evaluating rust resistance in field nurseries, using carefully selected rust races and methods that enabled selection for resistant genotypes to be made each season. Don was a leader in postulating the identity of leaf and stem rust resistance genes that were present in advanced breeding lines from wheat programs throughout the country. Working with Dr. Bob Busch, Don was involved with the release of “Era” wheat in 1970. Era was the first semi-dwarf spring wheat cultivar in the upper Midwest that was released by a public institution. Era offered a significant yield advantage over previous spring wheat cultivars and was resistant to stem and leaf rust. Era has been used as a parent in wheat breeding programs and is in the pedigree of many of the present day spring wheat cultivars. Don was also contributed greatly in the development of the cultivar “Marshall” that was released by Minnesota in 1982. Marshall had high yield potential and was the yield standard for the hard red spring wheat. Another notable cultivar that Don helped to develop was the winter wheat “Siouxland” released by Nebraska. This cultivar was the first wheat to have two leaf and stem rust resistance genes derived from wild relatives of wheat. Siouxland was widely adapted to the Great Plains region and was grown from Texas to South Dakota. In his latter years at the Cereal Disease Laboratory, Don worked particularly closely with the wheat breeding programs at the University of Minnesota, South Dakota State University, and the University of Nebraska. Don was listed as an author on many wheat cultivars that were released by these institutions. A recent cultivar from Minnesota that Don helped to develop is “McVey” which was one of the first modern spring wheat cultivars with some resistance to Fusarium head blight. The fact that stem rust was virtually eliminated as a pathogen of wheat in the U.S. can be attributed to the thorough screening for stem rust resistance that Don performed for wheat breeding programs throughout the U.S. In his last years at the Cereal Disease Laboratory Don also assumed responsibility for conducting the annual race survey of wheat stem rust in the U.S. that has been very important in the development of breeding lines for stem rust resistance. Through his publications and participation in workshops and conferences, Don’s contributions were widely recognized and appreciated by both cereal rust pathologists and wheat breeders.

Subscribe/Unsubscribe If you would like to be added to the newsletter list, send a message to [email protected] with “Add Me” in the subject line. If you would like to be removed from this list, please send a message to [email protected] with “Remove from BGRI Newsletter” in the subject line.

Editor’s Notes This quarterly newsletter is sent to members of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which is a global advocacy platform dedicated to reducing the world’s vulnerability to stem, yellow, and leaf rusts of wheat. The BGRI facilitates the evolution of a sustainable international system to contain the threat of wheat rusts and enhance wheat productivity to withstand future global threats to wheat. Any person or institution with an interest or stake in wheat rust research and development is welcome to be a member of the BGRI – just send a message to [email protected] indicating your interest, and you will be added to our email distribution list. For more information about the BGRI, wheat rust projects, and “who’s who” in the wheat rust world , visit the BGRI website http://globalrust.org. The newsletter is edited by Cally Arthur. The newsletter is managed by the editor and an advisory group consisting of Ronnie Coffman ([email protected]), Gordon Cisar ([email protected]), Peter Njau ([email protected]), and Mahinur Akkaya ([email protected]). BGRI members are encouraged contribute to the newsletter. Submissions may be about technical communications on wheat breeding and rust pathology issues,; announcements of meetings, courses and electronic conferences; book announcements and reviews; websites of special relevance to wheat and the rusts; announcements of funding opportunities; requests to other readers for information and collaboration; and feature articles or discussion issues brought by subscribers. Suggestions on format and content are always welcome by the editor, at [email protected] or [email protected]