Sustaining Barley Webinar Series | Building Resistance

Sustaining Barley Webinar Series

Building Resistance

January 21, 2027 @ 1 pm CT

Speakers:

Matthew Bakker | University of Manitoba, Department of Microbiology | Associate Professor

Presentation: "Malt quality traits are impacted by a broad spectrum of Fusarium species"

Dr. Matthew Bakker is an Associate Professor of Microbiology, and was previously a research scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture. He has been studying fusarium head blight for 10 years, including through biological control, connections to the microbiome, fungicide resistance, plant cell wall degrading enzymes, and biological transformation of trichothecene mycotoxins. Although most Fusarium-related issues in barley and malt are often assumed to be due to Fusarium graminearum, a range of Fusarium species can be found associated with barley. We tested each of six distinct Fusarium species for their impacts on malt quality parameters, demonstrating that multiple Fusarium species can contribute to diverse impacts on malt quality. Importantly, measuring DON content of incoming grain will not be informative about the risk of quality issues resulting from non-DON-producing species.  

Joint presentation: The ‘Root’ of Sustainable Barley Breeding: Unearthing the genetics behind barley root interactions with soil, microbes, and water.

Jessica Williams | Montana State University | Postdoctoral Researcher

Jessica got her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Denver. After researching genetics in fruit fly laboratories and becoming interested in farming  through volunteer work, she completed a PhD in plant science at Montana State  University. Now she researches the genetics of barley root systems with the goal of  breeding sustainable varieties.

Lula Langdon | Montana State University | PhD student

Lula grew up on a small farm in Upstate New York and completed a bachelor’s degree in  plant genetics, genomics, and breeding at UC Davis. She is hoping to help Montana growers grow high-quality barley on dry land in the era of climate change.