New Tech Could Help Wheat, a Global Food Source, Fight Disease Like Stem Rust

Learn how a pair of kinases could help plant scientists engineer crops resistant to infectious diseases and boost wheat's immunity.

By Paul Smaglik
Mar 28, 2025 8:30 PM
Studying wheat health
(Image Credit: maxim ibragimov/Shutterstock)

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Wheat can be vulnerable to diseases that may increase as the Earth warms. A team of scientists across five continents may have found a way to help wheat fight back, according to two papers published in the journal Science.

"Climate change is causing diseases to appear in places previously unseen,” Brande Wulff., a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and an author of the study, said in a press release. “We need more study of plant immunity to develop technologies that will protect valuable food crops."

An Urgent Need to Boost Plant Immunity

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