Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
08 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Dr Cornel Bender
Dr Cornel Bender received her PhD qualification at the virtual graduation ceremonies in October. The title of her thesis is: Stem rust resistance in South African wheat and triticale.

The rapid distribution of disease-causing organisms such as Ug99, a wheat stem-rust pathotype, pointed out just how vulnerable global cereal production is to disease outbreaks.

These cereals include wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale, rice, maize, and millet and are one of the most important food sources for human consumption.

According to Dr Cornel Bender, the projected world population of 10 billion in 2057 requires a growth of more than 40% in cereal production. Wheat is grown on more hectares than any other cereal and is one of the most important sources of calories for humans. However, the growth rate of wheat yields has declined from the 1960s to the 1990s. Therefore, it is essential to increase global wheat production.

“With the regular appearance of more aggressive stem rust pathotypes in South Africa, there is a constant need to discover new sources of resistance, understand the genetic base of presently deployed sources in wheat, triticale and barley cultivars, and to manipulate the deployment of resistant sources through a more sustainable approach,” says Dr Bender.

Her PhD thesis, titled: Stem rust resistance in South African wheat and triticale, includes various fundamental aspects for the effective management of stem rust in South Africa.

Dr Bender is a Professional Officer in the Division of Plant Pathology in the Department of Plant Sciences, who received her PhD at the virtual graduation ceremonies in October.

Innovative and cost effective

Her promotors, Prof Zakkie Pretorius, Research Fellow, and Dr Willem Boshoff, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences, believe that she used an innovative approach to develop a cost-effective phenotyping method to select for more durable resistance types in a controlled greenhouse environment.

“In the past, results obtained from field trials used to assess adult plants for stem-rust resistance, were often influenced by abiotic factors, were seasonable in nature, expensive, and time consuming; therefore, the development of a dependable greenhouse screening system provides an important additional instrument for rust research,” says Dr Bender.

She adds that the greenhouse technique is used worldwide to screen for adult plant resistance and contribute to save time and money.

Broadening our knowledge

“Inheritance studies were undertaken to determine the genetic base of stem-rust resistance in selected South African wheat and triticale cultivars (developed from wheat/rye crosses) through seedling analysis as well as greenhouse and fieldwork,” she says.

Dr Bender believes the use and development of different resistance screening methods, the elucidation of host genetics, as well as the use of histological and microscopic methods to study early resistance responses, broaden our knowledge and understanding of stem-rust resistance in South African wheat and triticale cultivars.

Ultimately, rust researchers, grain producers, and also the general public – through access to their daily bread – will benefit from her study.

News Archive

2014 Winter Graduation
2014-06-27

 
It is time for the 2014 Winter Graduation on our Bloemfontein Campus. From 2 – 4 July 2014 Masters and Doctoral degrees will be bestowed on graduates from across all seven faculties as well as the School of Open Learning. These include the conferral of Medicine degrees on the South African Cuban trainees.

Wednesday 2 July 2014 at 14:30: School of Open Learning
The School of Open Learning will confer a total of 609 degrees this year – almost double compared to the 320 of last year.

Thursday 3 July 2014 at 09:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Prof Magdalena Blum will receive an Honorary Doctorat, DPhil honoris causa, at this event. Prof Blum is an Extension Systems Officer in Rome. She works for a specialised agency of the United Nations called the Food and Agriculture Organization. This organisation’s mandate is:
• to improve nutrition,
• increase agricultural productivity,
• raise the standard of living in rural populations and
• contribute to global economic growth.

Her position serves to modernise and strengthen rural advisory services, their systems and networks worldwide. She has filled this position for almost nine years.

Prof Blum is driven by a passion for development, humanitarian work and female upliftment, but most of all, to enable people to help themselves.

Blum’s life has taken her from a small German village to Africa, Asia and Europe – and she has made an impact wherever she went.

Thursday 3 July 2014 at 14:30: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences, Humanities, Education, Health Sciences, Law and Theology
At this ceremony, Faculty of the Humanities will award an Honorary Doctorate, DPhil honoris causa, on Prof Laura Mulvey. She is a feminist film theorist and worked at the British Film Institute for many years. She is currently a professor at Film and Media Studies at Birkbeck, University of London.

Prof Mulvey was prominent as an avant-garde filmmaker in the 1970s and ‘80s. In collaboration with her husband, Peter Wollen, she co-wrote and co-directed:
• Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974),
• Riddles of the Sphinx (1977, perhaps their most influential film),
• AMY! (1980),
• Crystal Gazing (1982),
• Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (1982), and
• The Bad Sister.

In 1991, she returned to filmmaking with Disgraced Monuments, which she co-directed with Mark Lewis.

Friday 4 July 2014 at 10:30: Special Graduation Ceremony
Conferral of Medicine Degrees on the South African Cuban trainees at the UFS

Live streaming will be available on: http://www.ufs.ac.za/ufslivestreaming/

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept