Monday, June 17, 2019 - 11:00

Mon, June 17, 2019 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM See description. Join us for Dr. Gurcharn Brar's Research Seminar, "A retrospective of a plant pathologist: from the pathogen study to the host-pathogen interaction to breeding for resistance."

The research presentation will highlight three research studies from Dr. Brar’s research program on pathogens of wheat. Specifically, he will address two of the five most important wheat diseases (stripe rust and Fusarium head blight) in Canada and worldwide. Globally, these two pathogens are responsible for over US$5 billion monetary loss. Stripe rust is an emerging threat to wheat production in Canada for the last two decades and Fusarium head blight is by far the most challenging disease to manage and has been present in Canada for many decades. The presentation will give an overview of novel research findings on wheat stripe rust pathogen populations from Canada, use of cutting-edge imaging technologies to study wheat-Fusarium graminearum interactions, and resistance breeding efforts to combat the disease.

This seminar is taking place as part of a Cluster Hire in LFS Applied Biology, Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment, and CSFS at UBC Farm.