New wheat lines with enhanced disease resistance attracted interest when they went on public show at Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) Roma Research Station.

DPI&F experimentalist, Douglas Lush of the Leslie Research Centre in Toowoomba, said the new lines had a different genetic background to most current commercial varieties with which they would be competing, giving them moderate levels of resistance to a number of important diseases.

Mr Lush said the breeding work was supported by Enterprise Grains Australia, a joint venture between the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the DPI&F, and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

“The new lines, QT11658 and QT10984, are licensed to Pacific Seeds Ltd. and are planned for release and commercial production for the 2007 winter crop season.”

Mr Lush said there was concern about the over-reliance of the Sr30 gene to protect slow maturing varieties like Strzelecki, EGA Gregory, Baxter and EGA Wylie from stem rust.

“QT11658 yields as much as the popular standard varieties Strzelecki and Baxter, and is likely to replace Strzelecki in the northern region and be very competitive with that variety in southern New South Wales,” he said.

Mr Lush said AWB classification was being progressed for Queensland and northern New South Wales. 

“QT11658 has bright and stable yellow alkaline noodle sheet colour and dough mixing and baking attributes preferred for domestic milling.

“Domestic milling testing is under way,” he said.

Mr Lush said QT11658 was a slow maturing line with a better disease resistance package than currently cultivated varieties of this maturity.

“The line combines good yellow spot, crown rot and common root rot resistance, is moderately tolerant of root lesion nematodes, and appears to have adequate black point resistance.”

He said rust scores showed strong resistance to stripe and stem rusts.

Mr Lush said an added feature of QT11658 was that it carried the Sr24 stem rust resistant gene, which meant it was likely to be resistant to the most virulent pathotype of stem rust, Ug99.

That rust had been devastating in Africa and was expected to move quickly to other continents, he said.

Mr Lush said the QT10984 line was a slow maturing APH line with very high tolerance to root lesion nematodes and outstanding resistance to the black point grain defect.

“QT10984 has a different genetic background to other slow maturing varieties, which reduces the risks associated with many varieties relying on the same genes for protection,” he said.

Mr Lush said QT10984 yields over the past five years were similar to the popular standard varieties Baxter and EGA Gregory, and were an improvement over Strzelecki, Petrie, Sunvale, and Giles.

He said the AWB had classified QT10984 as APH in Queensland.

“It delivers bright and stable yellow alkaline noodle colour in a Hartog-like wheat,” he said.

About 50 farmers saw the new lines and commercial varieties at a field day at the research station.

The DPI&F has 19 similar trial and demonstration sites in Central and southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.