UMD Researchers Awarded $1M Federal Grant to Accelerate Wheat Disease Resistance Research

Scientists at the University of Maryland have received approximately $1 million in joint funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance a rapid, gene editing–based approach for improving disease resistance in wheat.

Led by Nidhi Rawat, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture (PSLA), the project aims to discover new genes in plants that make them susceptible to pathogens, and use gene editing to develop disease resistance in cultivated varieties much more quickly than is currently done.

By accelerating the discovery and deployment of novel resistance strategies, the project aims to help safeguard wheat production against destructive fungal diseases and contribute to food security.

“By combining mutation discovery with precise gene editing—what we call a ‘mut-ed’ approach—we can validate promising resistance traits and make them available for breeding programs to accelerate crop improvement,” she said.

Co-investigators of the project include PLSA professors Vijay Tiwari and Yiping Qi.

Fungal diseases pose a serious threat to global food production and safety. Among the most damaging is fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat, caused by Fusarium graminearum, which reduces grain yield and contaminates harvests with toxins that threaten food and feed supplies worldwide. The project builds on several years of foundational research to identify mutations in wheat that provide robust resistance to FHB. 

With support from NIFA and NSF, Rawat and her colleagues will use large-scale DNA analysis tools in combination with gene editing to pinpoint and recreate the specific genetic mutations leading to resistance to FHB. These mutations will then be introduced into more wheat varieties to ensure their effectiveness for disease management without any negative effects. Researchers will conduct comprehensive evaluations of plant growth, yield and overall fitness to ensure that enhanced disease resistance does not negatively impact desirable traits.

Beyond advancing fundamental knowledge of plant-pathogen interactions, the team intends for the project to make a broad impact in wheat production and food security. They will share seeds of newly developed resistant wheat lines with breeders and geneticists for further field testing and potential incorporation into commercial varieties.

The grant also supports hands-on training opportunities that prepare a new generation of scientists to address global food security challenges. High school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers will participate in the study, gaining experience with next-generation tools in plant biotechnology, genome analysis and gene editing.