US corn hybrids with multiple disease resistance will appear soon

The corn genome has the superpower to fight multiple pathogens simultaneously, scientists have found. In a changing climate, corn producers must be prepared for anything, including new and changing disease dynamics. Since it is impossible to predict which disease threat will appear in a given year, corn that is resistant to multiple diseases will be a huge plus for growers. And a new discovery by scientists will help us get closer to this goal. The AgroXXI.ru portal has read the release from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, authored by Lauren Quinn, who has good news for corn breeders and producers: “Goss wilt (or wilt), gray leaf spot, northern leaf rot and southern leaf rot of corn are important for manufacturers in the US Midwest, and in some cases throughout the world. Researchers have now identified genomic regions associated with resistance to all four diseases. “We not only discovered regions of the genome that confer resistance to each disease mentioned, but ...