RESEARCH PROJECT

Harnessing Genetic Diversity for Crop Resistance

Updated: October 2025

Project overview

Project manager: Salim Bourras
Contact: Salim Bourras
Funded by: Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS, 2020–01007). Carl Trygger Foundation (CTS, 21:1171). The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA, CF2023-0008).

Short summary

Scientific output

Preprints (sooner or later)

  1. Corrales Gutiérrez, M.Á., Desiderio, F., Douchkov, D. and Bourras, S. (2025) Transcriptome analysis of the response of domesticated emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum) to single vs. mixed infections with Zymosptoria tritici and Puccinia graminis. [Preprint]. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.10.13.682012.
  2. Corrales Gutiérrez, M.Á., Kaur, H., Desiderio, F., Douchkov, D.K., Zhan, J., Vélëz, H. and Bourras, S. (2024) An experimental approach to study multi-species interactions implicated in Fusarium-Head Blight complex assembly in wheat. [Preprint]. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2024.04.14.589412.

Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publications

  1. Isaksson, J., Heuberger, M., Amhof, M., Kunz, L., Bourras, S. and Keller, B. (2025) ‘Interactions of wheat powdery mildew effectors involved in recognition by the wheat NLR PM3’, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 38(10), pp. 1280–1293. doi:10.1094/MPMI-05-25-0050-SC.
  2. Kaur, H., Vilvert, E., Corrales Gutiérrez, M.Á., Zhan, J., Douchkov, D., Desiderio, F., Vélëz, H. and Bourras, S. (2025) ‘Isolation and characterization of fungi associated with wheat heads and leaf blotch symptoms in Sweden’, European Journal of Plant Pathology. doi:10.1007/s10658-025-03096-z.
  3. Lück, S., Bourras, S. and Douchkov, D. (2025) ‘Deep phenotyping platform for microscopic plant–pathogen interactions’, Frontiers in Plant Science, 16, 1462694. doi:10.3389/fpls.2025.1462694.
  4. Viviani, A., Haile, J.K., Fernando, W.G.D., Bourras, S., Cativelli, L., Chibbar, R., Clarke, J.M., Clarke, S.L., Knox, R.E., Kumar, A., Maclachlan, M., Muehlbauer, G.J., Nsarellah, N., Pozniak, C.J., Randhawa, H., Ruan, Y., Singh, A.K., Singh, P.K., Tuberosa, R., Voth, D. and Wiebe, K. (2025) ‘Priority actions for Fusarium head blight resistance in durum wheat: Insights from the Wheat Initiative’, The Plant Genome, 18(1), e20539. doi:10.1002/tpg2.20539.
  5. Kunz, L., Poretti, M., Praz, C.R., Müller, M.C., Wyler, M., Keller, B., Wicker, T. and Bourras, S. (2024) ‘High-copy transposons from a pathogen give rise to a conserved sRNA family with a novel host immunity target’, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 37(7), pp. 783–797. doi:10.1094/MPMI-10-23-0176-SC.
  6. Bapela, T., Shimelis, H., Terefe, T., Bourras, S. and Tsilo, T.J. (2023) ‘Breeding wheat for powdery mildew resistance: Genetic resources and methodologies—a review’, Agronomy, 13(2), 556. doi:10.3390/agronomy13020556.

 

In our research catalog, you will find more projects