Wheat disease patterns will vary with a changing climate presenting new challenges for wheat scientists. Under this scenario, the identification of resilient wheat germplasm that combines both high yield and adequate disease resistance will be vital.

The CAIGE (CIMMYT-AUSTRALIA-ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation) concept has proven to be an effective way for Australian cereal breeders, pre-breeders and pathologists to optimize the use of wheat genetic resources from the wheat programs of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) provides partial support to this multi-partner collaborative program with international, and Australian national partners including public pathology programs, universities and private breeding sector companies. CAIGE, led by the University of Sydney, coordinates the selection, importation and quarantine (provided by the Australian Grains Genebank), multiplication, and assessment of the international crop germplasm (bread wheat, durum wheat and barley) in Australia, including concurrent testing for important foliar and soil borne pathogens. CAIGE manages the information generated using a relational database and disseminates the information through our website (caigeproject.org.au).

CAIGE aims to provide a basis for local Australian scientists, breeders, and pre-breeders to optimise selection decisions. More than a dozen valuable high yielding wheat lines have been identified across the main cereal cropping regions of Australia and have confirmed multiple pathogen resistance to three or more pathogens including the rusts (stripe, leaf and stem), Septoria nodorum blotch (both leaf and glume), Septoria tritici blotch, yellow spot (tan Spot), powdery mildew, and soil borne pathogens including root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus thornei and/or P. neglectus) and/or crown rot (Fusarium pseudograminearum). Likewise, CAIGE serves as platform to identify multiple disease resistant parents for the CGIAR breeding pipelines.

It is likely that many of these disease resistances could be novel as the imported materials generally have genetic diversity not present in Australian germplasm. Use of known KASP disease resistance markers for several pathogens have inferred novel resistances for some of the lines. Further work to explore the novelty of these resistances is planned in collaboration with the Australian and international partners. These lines provide significant value to the Australian breeding community and may also prove to be useful for other programs around the world, as may the CAIGE model of germplasm exchange and collaboration.