Team:Lethbridge/Practices Stakeholders

• iGEM
• RNAiCare
• Project
  • Description
  • Design
  • Results
  • Production
  • Judging
• Parts
  • Basic Parts
  • Composite Parts
  • Measurement
• Practices
  • Risks
  • Stakeholders
  • Current Problems
• Notebook
  • July
  • August
  • September
• Team
  • Members
  • Collaborations
  • Attributions
  • Sponsors

Practices

Stakeholders

Wheat crops in Canada are protected from infection by Fusarium graminearum through the application of foliar fungicides and seed treatments. Foliar fungicides are sprayed onto the plant itself rather than soaking seeds as is done in a seed treatment. Seed treatments are used to prevent initial FHB infections from the dormant chlamydospores in the soil. These seed treatments are however, not as effective in prevention of the spread of FHB once the crop begins to grow and are most vulnerable [1]. A suppressive spraying method is used, meaning crops are sprayed at the point in growth that they are most vulnerable to infection by FHB. Farmers will spray once after 75% of the heads on the main stem are fully emerged, but before 50% of them have flowered [2].

Table 1: Product information regarding foliar fungicides that target FHB in winter wheat [3][4].

Fungicide	Recommended Vol. / Acre (mL)	Cost / Acre	Concentration (g/L)
Folicur EW	201	$12.13	250
Prosaro	324	$19.62	250
Fuse	118	$11.67	432

Table 1 provides information about three commonly used FHB combatant foliar fungicides. The cost of spraying these products adds up when considering the millions of acres that Canadian farmers must spray to keep their flowering wheat Fusarium-free. Seed treatments can also be quite expensive. For example, a fungicidal seed treatment made for wheat called Vibrance Quattro is $346 per bushel at 69.0g/L [4]. These costs all may vary based on the retailer and composition of the fungicides. Our goal is to eventually create a way to produce RNAi that is more affordable than these conventional fungicides.

References

1. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 2010. Crop Profile for Winter Wheat in Canada, 2010. Pesticide Risk Reduction Program Pest Management Centre Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1-65.
2. Government of Saskatchewan. 2015. Fusarium Head Blight. Provincial Crop Protection Laboratory. http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/fusarium-head-blight
3. Bayer CropScience Canada. 2015. http://www.cropscience.bayer.ca/Products/Fungicides
4. Syngenta Canada. 2015. http://www.syngentafarm.ca/Productsdetail/Fuse/