Fusarium graminearum fungi infects wheat heads, producing mycotoxins that reduce the kernels' value and quality.

Wheat collected from Japan, China and South Korea contain anti-fungal genes that could increase resistance in U.S. wheat varieties, said Guihua Bai, a molecular plant biologist at the Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research Unit in Manhattan, Kan.

The Asian wheat samples include 87 "landrace" populations -- domesticated species that have changed little since the advent of modern plant breeding.

In testing so far, 26 of the landrace lines showed high resistance to the blight, Bai wrote in the April issue of Agricultural Research Magazine.

The blight cost the U.S. wheat industry an estimated $2.7 billion when it swept through the Great Plains states from 1998 to 2000.

earlier related report
Coffee beans may become insecticides
Campinas, Brazil, April 1, 2009 - Brazilian scientists say they've found unroasted coffee beans contain proteins that can kill insects -- a finding that may lead to new food crop insecticides.

University of Campinas Professor Paulo Mazzafera said peas, beans and other plant seeds contain proteins called globulins, which ward off insects and coffee beans contain large amounts of globulins.

Although the high heat involved in roasting coffee beans destroys the globulins, Mazzafera said he and his team wondered whether the coffee proteins might also have an insecticidal effect.

Their tests against cowpea weevil larva -- insects used as models for studying the insecticidal activity of proteins -- showed tiny amounts of the coffee proteins quickly killed up to half of the insects.

In the future, the researchers said scientists could insert genes for the insect-killing proteins into important food crops, such as grains, so that the plants produce their own insecticides.

The research is reported in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

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