A 15-member wheat research team from Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) recently visited Bologna, Italy, to attend the 4th International Wheat Congress (IWC2026). Faculty members and students from the College of Plant Science and Technology participated in discussions on wheat breeding, metabolomics, gene editing, and crop disease research.
Before the main sessions, Professor Lan Caixia co-hosted a seminar on wheat diseases with Kar-Chun Tan from Curtin University in Australia. She gave a report on how climate change affects the development and spread of five major wheat diseases in China, suggesting possible directions for future wheat breeding.
Doctoral students Zhang Zhe and Wu Shaodi also delivered an oral presentation and led a session. Zhang presented research on wheat stripe rust resistance and the development of molecular markers. Wu introduced a method for predicting powdery mildew incidence using daily satellite data and machine-learning models.
HZAU students also participated in poster sessions and academic exchanges. Doctoral student Liu Mengmeng presented a gene on wheat chromosome 2D that may improve resistance to Fusarium head blight, increase nutritional quality, and maintain yield. The study attracted international attention. Other students engaged in discussions with scholars from Canada and Germany on topics such as the flowering transition in wheat crops and genotype-by-environment interaction models.
The congress provided an important platform for HZAU's young researchers to connect with leading international scientists and gain a better understanding of global trends in wheat research.

The HZAU delegation attends the 4th International Wheat Congress in Bologna, Italy. [Photo/new.hzau.edu.cn]