![Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty and NSW DPI senior plant pathologist Dr Andrew Milgate at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. Picture by Alexandra Bernard. Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty and NSW DPI senior plant pathologist Dr Andrew Milgate at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. Picture by Alexandra Bernard.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/176500960/50f06aa3-2a8d-4fc4-aa54-e75c203c00e1.JPG/r0_0_3916_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A new approach to selecting resistance in plants is set to fast-track breeding programs and increase crop protection.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Developed by the Department of Primary Industries, senior plant pathologist, Dr Andrew Milgate, Wagga Wagga, said the new method discovered combined a number of traditional phenotyping techniques.
"It allows us to make new discoveries about how plant pathogens are detected, and when they're detected during the infection process," he said.
"That opens up a whole new field of possibilities in terms of how plant breeders can select and combine resistance genes in plants to defend against the fungal and oomycetes pathogens."
Dr Milgate said the approach, named the defend method, was different from other high end molecular discoveries that were currently being made using DNA technologies.
"This is a classical plant breeding phenotyping methodology that allows immediate selection of of resistance and can cut years off the time frame to be able to get a deeper understanding of how and when the pathogen has been detected," he said.
Dr Milgate said after the initial discovery in wheat the application was expanded into other crop species and host pathosystems.
"We discovered quickly that we could apply this methodology across any plant species that we tested and all fungal pathogens that we tested," he said.
"It's incredibly broad and so the impact it can have in terms of assisting plant breeding across the globe is huge - it's a really significant sort of fundamental discovery."
Dr Milgate said the discovery was important for the industry as it allowed combining known resistance genes already in breeding programs and creating combinations that are more durable.
"As well as accelerating the discovery of new resistance genes and being able to focus or prioritise the further the downstream research on those to then allow more combinations to be to be developed in commercial varieties," he said.
"And so reducing that research time frame from maybe three, five, 10 years down to one, less than a year, can have a massive impact on the breeding program."
Dr Milgate said the priorities had been mainly foliar diseases, covering a range of different pathogen types with some looked at including stripe rust, and septoria tritici blotch in wheat, as well as scald in barley.
"We have also even extended it into testing it on blueberries, celery, and tomatoes," he said.
"So while here we are primarily focused on broadacre cropping we've made sure that we could use this methodology in horticultural crops as well."
The method has been developed over the last two years and has received final clearance for a patent, to be granted in about three months.
Dr Milgate said an expression of interest had been released with researchers looking to partner with a breeding company to adopt the methodology in a commercial breeding space.
The new methodology was announced by the NSW Government on Wednesday.
Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty said the new technology would enable industry to adopt disease resistant crop varieties faster and easier resulting in increased profitability and productivity for growers.