Brent McCallum

Image Brent McCallum
Research Scientist

I am a plant pathologist specializing in wheat leaf rust disease. My research is focussed on developing genetic resistance to leaf rust and working with plant breeders and geneticists to incorporate this resistance into Canadian wheat cultivars. My program is very collaborative with colleagues in many different research areas and at various research institutions across Canada and the world.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Morden Manitoba

Current research and/or projects

Various research projects focussed on the genetics of wheat leaf rust resistance. This includes discovery of resistance, determination of the genetics of resistance, fine mapping resistance genes, marker development and gene cloning. I also research the causal organism Puccinia triticina conducting an annual virulence survey of the pathogen and other genetic research on this pathogen.

Research and/or project statements

- Genetics of wheat leaf rust resistance.

- Discovery of genetic resistance to diseases in wheat.

- Annual virulence survey of the wheat leaf rust causal organism Puccinia triticina.

- Resistance screening for wheat cultivars in development.

- Mitigating emerging threats to Canadian wheat.

Professional activities / interests

- Genetics.

- Wheat.

- Plant Pathology.

Education and awards

Ph.D. University of Minnesota 1995

M.Sc. University of Manitoba 1991

B.Sc.A. University of Manitoba 1989

International experience and/or work

- Collaborative research projects with colleages in many countries including Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Key publications

  1. Dinushika Thambugala, Colin Hiebert, Brent McCallum, Mallorie Lewarne, Andriy Bilichak, Curtis Pozniak, Guus Bakkeren, Harmeet Singh Chawla, Curt McCartney (2023) Fine mapping of the wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr2a. International Plant and Animal Genome Conference, January 13-18, 2023, San Diego

    2023 - View publication details

  2. Colin W. Hiebert, Jyoti Saini Sharma, Tom Fetch, Brent D. McCallum, Matthew Moscou, Wolfgang Spielmeyer (2023) The Sr12 region is involved in enhanced stem rust resistance in lines carrying Lr34 or SuSr-D1 mutant alleles in wheat. International Plant and Animal Genome Conference, January 13-18, 2023, San Diego

    2023 - View publication details

  3. Cloutier S, Fedak G, Fatima F, Bartaula S, McCallum B, Henriquez MA, Blackwell B, Aboukhaddour R, Foster A, Hiebert C, Humphreys G, McCartney C, Pozniak C, You F (2022) Tapping into wild relatives to improve wheat. ProciNorte Disease Task Force Webinars - Wheat & Grapes: Mitigating the effects brought on by climate change, Sept 13 & 15, Virtual (oral – invited)

    2022 - View publication details

  4. NS Research Day: FHB Surveillance in the Maritimes 2021: Towards FHB Forecasting & Management (2022). Atlantic Grains Council Research Day. Truro, NS, April 8, 2022 (presentation).

    2022 - View publication details

  5. NB Research Day: FHB Surveillance in the Maritimes 2021: Towards FHB Forecasting & Management (2022). Atlantic Grains Council Research Day. Woodstock, NB, April 7, 2022 (presentation).

    2022 - View publication details

  6. PEI Research Day: FHB Surveillance in the Maritimes 2021: Towards FHB Forecasting & Management (2022). Atlantic Grains Council Research Day. Charlottetown, PE, March 23, 2022 (presentation).

    2022 - View publication details

  7. Cloutier S, Fedak G, Fatima F, Bartaula S, McCallum B, Henriquez MA, Blackwell B, Aboukhaddour R, Foster A, Hiebert C, Humphreys G, Mccartney C, Pozniak C, You F (2022) Wheat Pre-breeding: the struggle(s) and potential. Proc. 37th Plant Sciences Graduate Students’ Symposium 2022, March 4-5, Virtual (oral)

    2022 - View publication details

  8. Cloutier S, Fedak G, Fatima F, Bartaula S, McCallum B, Henriquez MA, Blackwell B, Aboukhaddour R, Foster A, Hiebert C, Humphreys G, McCartney C, Pozniak C, You F (2021) The challenges and promises of pre-breeding. Can Soc Plant Biol – Eastern Regional Meeting. Virtual, Nov 27 (oral keynote plenary)

    2021 - View publication details

  9. Turkington, T.K. and McCallum, B. 2021. AAFC Prairie Biovigilance Wheat Leaf Spot Survey – 2021. 2021 Cereal Disease Situation Report, compiled by T.K. Turkington and H.R. Kutcher. 46th Annual Meeting of the Western Committee on Plant Disease, October 28th, 2021 (online).

    2021 - View publication details

  10. Makela, K., et al. (2021). Biovigilance: A Modern Approach to Plant Pest Management (Vision Statement), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Science and Technology Branch: 29 pp.

    2021 - View publication details

  11. Bykova NV, Rampitsch C, McCallum B, Bakkeren G, Wang X, Huang M, Fernando U, Radovanovic N, Rampitsch M, Linning R (2021) Profiling the total and nuclear proteomes of host-pathogen interactions of the wheat Thatcher near-isogenic line for Lr2a resistance gene with virulent and avirulent races of Puccinia triticina. 4th International Plant Proteomics Organization (INPPO) Conference. Virtual Conference hosted from Winnipeg, Canada, March 9-11, 2021. Poster http://www.inppo2020.org/

    2021 - View publication details

  12. Fatima, F., McCallum, B.D., Pozniak, C.J., Hiebert, C.W., McCartney, C.A., Fedak, G., You, F.M., Cloutier, S. (2020). Identification of New Leaf Rust Resistance Loci in Wheat and Wild Relatives by Array-Based SNP Genotyping and Association Genetics. Frontiers in Plant Science, [online] 11 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.583738

    2020 - View publication details

  13. Wang, X., Che, M.Z., Khalil, H.B., McCallum, B.D., Bakkeren, G., Rampitsch, C., Saville, B.J. (2020). The role of reactive oxygen species in the virulence of wheat leaf rust fungus Puccinia triticina. Environmental Microbiology, [online] 22(7), 2956-2967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15063

    2020 - View publication details

  14. Mccallum, B.D., Seto-Goh, P., Reimer, E., Foster, A., Xue, A. (2020). Physiological specialization of Puccinia triticina, the causal agent of wheat leaf rust, in Canada in 2013. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, [online] 42(2), 243-249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07060661.2019.1653376

    2020 - View publication details

  15. Aboukhaddour, R., Fetch, T., McCallum, B. D., Harding, M. W., Beres, B. L., & Graf, R. J. (2020). Wheat diseases on the prairies: A canadian story. Plant Pathology, 69(3), 418-432. doi:10.1111/ppa.13147

    2020 - View publication details

  16. Fatima F, McCallum B, Hiebert C, McCartney C, Fedak G, Pozniak C, Edwards T, Ravichandran S, You FM, Cloutier S (2020) Single and multi-locus genome-wide association study for leaf rust resistance in cultivated, progenitor and wild wheat. Proc 28th Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, USA, Jan 11-15, PO0937

    2020 - View publication details

  17. Randhawa, H.S., Brown, P.D., Fetch, J.M., Fetch, T., Gilbert, J., McCallum, B., Menzies, J., Gaudet, D. (2020). Aac crossfield red spring wheat. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, [online] 100(2), 239-244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjps-2019-0237

    2020 - View publication details

  18. Zhang, W., Yu, B., Hsueh, M., Sidebottom, C., Gao, P., Polley, B., Baumann, A., Lokuruge, P., Konkin, D., Knox, R., Pozniak, C., Cuthbert, R., Ruan, Y., McCallum, B., Henriquez, M.A., K Boyle, K., Fobert, P., and Sharpe, A. 2019. Canadian wheat-nam (cannam): a powerful resource for the wheat research community. 1st International Wheat Congress, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, July 21-26, 2019.

    2019 - View publication details

  19. Fatima F, Edwards T, Hiebert C, McCartney C, McCallum B, Henriquez MA, Humphreys G, Cao W, Fedak G, You FM, Cloutier S (2019) Diversity analysis of wheat and wild relatives using the wheat 90K Infinium array. Proc 1st International Wheat Congress, Saskatoon, July 21-27, P217 (poster)

    2019 - View publication details

  20. Knox, R.E., Bokore, F.E., Cuthbert, R.D., Berraies, S., McCallum, B.D., Henriquez, M.A., Kumar, S., Burt, A., Fetch, T., Monro, C., Bhavani, S., Piche, I., Campbell, H.L., Meyer, B., Ruan, Y., Bhadauria, V., N'diaye, A., Pozniak, C.J., A. Sharpe, A., R., and DePauw, R. 2019. Molecular Breeding Opportunities and Challenges for Complex Trait Recombination on Wheat Chromosome 4B. XXVII International Plant and Animal Genome Conference, San Diego, CA, USA, January 12-16, 2019.

    2019 - View publication details

Contact

Research facility

Morden Research and Development Centre
Route 100, Unit 100-101
Morden, MB R6M 1Y5
Canada

Expertise

Agriculture›Pathology›Cereal

Affiliations

Canadian Phytopathological Society.

Language

English