Curtis Pozniak

Plant Sciences, Crop Development Centre

• Ph.D., University of Saskatchewan
• B.S.A., University of Saskatchewan

Sow MD, Forestan C, Pont C, Civan P, Battaglia R, Seidel M, Siguret C, Curci PL, Tondelli A, Bustos Korts D, Mazzucotelli E, Leroy T, Huneau C, Delahaye M, Ormanbekova D, Bozzoli M, Guarino-Vignon P, Schaal C, Cabanis M, Lelievre M, Cayrol J, Guerra D, Nigro D, Gadaleta A, Ens J, Wiebe K, Shapiro B, Green RE, van Eeuwijk F, Bayer M, Russell J, Dawson I, Waugh R, Kilian B, Orlando L, Sonnante G, Pozniak CJ, Tuberosa R, Haberer G, Maccaferri M, Cattivelli L, Salse J. 2025.  Striking convergent selection history of wheat and barley and its potential for breeding. Nature Plants. doi: 10.1038/s41477-025-02128-0. 

Klymiuk V, Wiebe K, Chawla HS, Ens J, Subramaniam R, Pozniak CJ. 2025.  Coordinated function of paired NLRs confers Yr84-mediated stripe rust resistance in wheat. Nature Genetics 57(6):1535-1542. doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02203-4. 

Guo W, Schreiber M, Marosi VB, Bagnaresi P, Jørgensen ME, Braune KB, Chalmers K, Chapman B, Dang V, Dockter C, Fiebig A, Fincher GB, Fricano A, Fuller J, Haaning A, Haberer G, Himmelbach A, Jayakodi M, Jia Y, Kamal N, Langridge P, Li C, Lu Q, Lux T, Mascher M, Mayer KFX, McCallum N, Milne L, Muehlbauer GJ, Nielsen MTS, Padmarasu S, Pedas PR, Pillen K, Pozniak C, Rasmussen MW, Sato K, Schmutzer T, Scholz U, Schüler D, Šimková H, Skadhauge B, Stein N, Thomsen NW, Voss C, Wang P, Wonneberger R, Zhang XQ, Zhang G, Cattivelli L, Spannagl M, Bayer M, Simpson C, Zhang R, Waugh R. 2025. A barley pan-transcriptome reveals layers of genotype-dependent transcriptional complexity. Nature Genetics. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-02069-y.

Ma X, Kthiri D, Gill MS, Pozniak CJ, Kagale S. 2025.  Cas9 endonuclease: a molecular tool for in vitro cloning and CRISPR edit detection. Front Genome Ed.7. doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2025.1565297.

White B, Lux T, Rusholme-Pilcher R, Juhász A, Kaithakottil G, Duncan S, Simmonds J, Rees H, Wright J, Colmer J, Ward S, Joynson R, Coombes B, Irish N, Henderson S, Barker T, Chapman H, Catchpole L, Gharbi K, Bose U, Okada M, Handa H, Nasuda S, Shimizu KK, Gundlach H, Lang D, Naamati G, Legg EJ, Bharti AK, Colgrave ML, Haerty W, Uauy C, Swarbreck D, Borrill P, Poland JA, Krattinger SG, Stein N, Mayer KFX, Pozniak C; 10+ Wheat Genome Project; Spannagl M, Hall A. 2025.  De novo annotation reveals transcriptomic complexity across the hexaploid wheat pan-genome. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-64046-1.

Hewitt TC, Sharma K, Zhang J, Chen C, Bajgain P, Bhatt D, Singh S, Olivera Firpo PD, Yang J, Wang Q, Upadhyaya N, Pozniak C, McIntosh R, Lagudah E, Zhang P, Rouse MN. 2025.  Divergent molecular pathways govern temperature-dependent wheat stem rust resistance genes. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60030-x.

Reveguk T, Fatiukha A, Potapenko E, Reveguk I, Sela H, Klymiuk V, Li Y, Pozniak C, Wicker T, Coaker G, Fahima T. 2025.  Tandem kinase proteins across the plant kingdom. Nature Genetics. 62. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-02032-x. 

Jayakodi M, Lu Q, Pidon H, Rabanus-Wallace MT, Bayer M, Lux T, Guo Y, Jaegle B, Badea A, Bekele W, Brar GS, Braune K, Bunk B, Chalmers KJ, Chapman B, Jørgensen ME, Feng JW, Feser M, Fiebig A, Gundlach H, Guo W, Haberer G, Hansson M, Himmelbach A, Hoffie I, Hoffie RE, Hu H, Isobe S, König P, Kale SM, Kamal N, Keeble-Gagnère G, Keller B, Knauft M, Koppolu R, Krattinger SG, Kumlehn J, Langridge P, Li C, Marone MP, Maurer A, Mayer KFX, Melzer M, Muehlbauer GJ, Murozuka E, Padmarasu S, Perovic D, Pillen K, Pin PA, Pozniak CJ, Ramsay L, Pedas PR, Rutten T, Sakuma S, Sato K, Schüler D, Schmutzer T, Scholz U, Schreiber M, Shirasawa K, Simpson C, Skadhauge B, Spannagl M, Steffenson BJ, Thomsen HC, Tibbits JF, Nielsen MTS, Trautewig C, Vequaud D, Voss C, Wang P, Waugh R, Westcott S, Rasmussen MW, Zhang R, Zhang XQ, Wicker T, Dockter C, Mascher M, Stein N. Structural variation in the pangenome of wild and domesticated barley. Nature. 2024 Dec;636(8043):654-662. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08187-1. 

Li Y, Wei ZZ, Sela H, Govta L, Klymiuk V, Roychowdhury R, Chawla HS, Ens J, Wiebe K, Bocharova V, Ben-David R, Pawar PB, Zhang Y, Jaiwar S, Molnár I, Doležel J, Coaker G, Pozniak CJ, Fahima T. 2024.  Dissection of a rapidly evolving wheat resistance gene cluster by long-read genome sequencing accelerated the cloning of Pm69. Plant Commun.  doi: 10.1016/j.xplc.2023.100646.

Viviani A, Haile JK, Fernando WGD, Ceoloni C, Kuzmanović L, Lhamo D, Gu YQ, Xu SS, Cai X, Buerstmayr H, Elias EM, Confortini A, Bozzoli M, Brar GS, Ruan Y, Berraies S, Hamada W, Oufensou S, Jayawardana M, Walkowiak S, Bourras S, Dayarathne M, Isidro Y Sánchez J, Doohan F, Gadaleta A, Marcotuli I, He X, Singh PK, Dreisigacker S, Ammar K, Klymiuk V, Tuberosa R, Maccaferri M, Pozniak CJ, Steiner B, Mastrangelo AM, Cattivelli L. (2025) Priority actions for Fusarium head blight resistance in durum wheat: Insights from the wheat initiative. Plant Genome.  Mar;18(1):e20539. doi: 10.1002/tpg2.20539.

Cavalet-Giorsa E, González-Muñoz A, Athiyannan N, Holden S, Salhi A, Gardener C, Quiroz-Chávez J, Rustamova SM, Elkot AF, Patpour M, Rasheed A, Mao L, Lagudah ES, Periyannan SK, Sharon A, Himmelbach A, Reif JC, Knauft M, Mascher M, Stein N, Chayut N, Ghosh S, Perovic D, Putra A, Perera AB, Hu CY, Yu G, Ahmed HI, Laquai KD, Rivera LF, Chen R, Wang Y, Gao X, Liu S, Raupp WJ, Olson EL, Lee JY, Chhuneja P, Kaur S, Zhang P, Park RF, Ding Y, Liu DC, Li W, Nasyrova FY, Dvorak J, Abbasi M, Li M, Kumar N, Meyer WB, Boshoff WHP, Steffenson BJ, Matny O, Sharma PK, Tiwari VK, Grewal S, Pozniak CJ, Chawla HS, Ens J, Dunning LT, Kolmer JA, Lazo GR, Xu SS, Gu YQ, Xu X, Uauy C, Abrouk M, Bougouffa S, Brar GS, Wulff BBH, Krattinger SG. Origin and evolution of the bread wheat D genome. Nature. 2024 Sep;633(8031):848-855. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07808-z.Jayakodi M, Lu Q, Pidon H, Rabanus-Wallace MT, Bayer M, Lux T, Guo Y, Jaegle B, Badea A, Bekele W, Brar GS, Braune K, Bunk B, Chalmers KJ, Chapman B, Jørgensen ME, Feng JW, Feser M, Fiebig A, Gundlach H, Guo W, Haberer G, Hansson M, Himmelbach A, Hoffie I, Hoffie RE, Hu H, Isobe S, König P, Kale SM, Kamal N, Keeble-Gagnère G, Keller B, Knauft M, Koppolu R, Krattinger SG, Kumlehn J, Langridge P, Li C, Marone MP, Maurer A, Mayer KFX, Melzer M, Muehlbauer GJ, Murozuka E, Padmarasu S, Perovic D, Pillen K, Pin PA, Pozniak CJ, Ramsay L, Pedas PR, Rutten T, Sakuma S, Sato K, Schüler D, Schmutzer T, Scholz U, Schreiber M, Shirasawa K, Simpson C, Skadhauge B, Spannagl M, Steffenson BJ, Thomsen HC, Tibbits JF, Nielsen MTS, Trautewig C, Vequaud D, Voss C, Wang P, Waugh R, Westcott S, Rasmussen MW, Zhang R, Zhang XQ, Wicker T, Dockter C, Mascher M, Stein N. 2024.  Structural variation in the pangenome of wild and domesticated barley. Nature.  doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08187-1.

Govta N, Fatiukha A, Govta L, Pozniak C, Distelfeld A, Fahima T, Beckles DM, Krugman T. 2024.  Nitrogen deficiency tolerance conferred by introgression of a QTL derived from wild emmer into bread wheat. Theor Appl Genet.  doi: 10.1007/s00122-024-04692-z. 

Haile JK, Sertse D, N'Diaye A, Klymiuk V, Wiebe K, Ruan Y, Chawla HS, Henriquez MA, Wang L, Kutcher HR, Steiner B, Buerstmayr H, Pozniak CJ. 2023.  Multi-locus genome-wide association studies reveal the genetic architecture of Fusarium head blight resistance in durum wheat. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.

Klymiuk V, Haile T, Ens J, Wiebe K, N'Diaye A, Fatiukha A, Krugman T, Ben-David R, Hübner S, Cloutier S, Pozniak CJ. 2003.  Genetic architecture of rust resistance in a wheat (Triticum turgidum) diversity panel. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1145371.

Zhang J, Xiong H, Burguener GF, Vasquez-Gross H, Liu Q, Debernardi JM, Akhunova A, Garland-Campbell K, Kianian SF, Brown-Guedira G, Pozniak C, Faris JD, Akhunov E, Dubcovsky J. 2023.  Sequencing 4.3 million mutations in wheat promoters to understand and modify gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306494120. 

Avni R, Lux T, Minz-Dub A, Millet E, Sela H, Distelfeld A, Deek J, Yu G, Steuernagel B, Pozniak C, Ens J, Gundlach H, Mayer KFX, Himmelbach A, Stein N, Mascher M, Spannagl M, Wulff BBH, Sharon A. 2022. Genome sequences of three Aegilops species of the section Sitopsis reveal phylogenetic relationships and provide resources for wheat improvement. Plant J. doi: 10.1111/tpj.15664.

Borrill P, Mago R, Xu T, Ford B, Williams SJ, Derkx A, Bovill WD, Hyles J, Bhatt D, Xia X, MacMillan C, White R, Buss W, Molnár I, Walkowiak S, Olsen OA, Doležel J, Pozniak CJ, Spielmeyer W. 2022.  An autoactive NB-LRR gene causes Rht13 dwarfism in wheat. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2209875119. 

Yu G, Matny O, Champouret N, Steuernagel B, Moscou MJ, Hernández-Pinzón I, Green P, Hayta S, Smedley M, Harwood W, Kangara N, Yue Y, Gardener C, Banfield MJ, Olivera PD, Welchin C, Simmons J, Millet E, Minz-Dub A, Ronen M, Avni R, Sharon A, Patpour M, Justesen AF, Jayakodi M, Himmelbach A, Stein N, Wu S, Poland J, Ens J, Pozniak C, Karafiátová M, Molnár I, Doležel J, Ward ER, Reuber TL, Jones JDG, Mascher M, Steffenson BJ, Wulff BBH. 2022.  Aegilops sharonensis genome-assisted identification of stem rust resistance gene Sr62. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29132-8.

Klymiuk V, Chawla HS, Wiebe K, Ens J, Fatiukha A, Govta L, Fahima T, Pozniak CJ. 2022.  Discovery of stripe rust resistance with incomplete dominance in wild emmer wheat using bulked segregant analysis sequencing. Communications Biology.doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03773-3. 

Klymiuk V, Coaker G, Fahima T, Pozniak CJ. 2021. Tandem Protein Kinases Emerge as New Regulators of Plant Immunity. Mol Plant Microbe Interact. doi: 10.1094/MPMI-03-21-0073-CR.

Rabanus-Wallace MT, Hackauf B, Mascher M, Lux T, Wicker T, Gundlach H, Baez M, Houben A, Mayer KFX, Guo L, Poland J, Pozniak CJ, Walkowiak S, Melonek J, Praz CR, Schreiber M, Budak H, Heuberger M, Steuernagel B, Wulff B, Börner A, Byrns B, Čížková J, Fowler DB, Fritz A, Himmelbach A, Kaithakottil G, Keilwagen J, Keller B, Konkin D, Larsen J, Li Q, Myśków B, Padmarasu S, Rawat N, Sesiz U, Biyiklioglu-Kaya S, Sharpe A, Šimková H, Small I, Swarbreck D, Toegelová H, Tsvetkova N, Voylokov AV, Vrána J, Bauer E, Bolibok-Bragoszewska H, Doležel J, Hall A, Jia J, Korzun V, Laroche A, Ma XF, Ordon F, Özkan H, Rakoczy-Trojanowska M, Scholz U, Schulman AH, Siekmann D, Stojałowski S, Tiwari VK, Spannagl M, Stein N. 2021.  Chromosome-scale genome assembly provides insights into rye biology, evolution and agronomic potential. Nature Genetics.  doi: 10.1038/s41588-021-00807-0. 

Brinton J, Ramirez-Gonzalez RH, Simmonds J, Wingen L, Orford S, Griffiths S; 10 Wheat Genome Project; Haberer G, Spannagl M, Walkowiak S, Pozniak C, Uauy C. 2020.  A haplotype-led approach to increase the precision of wheat breeding. Communications Biology. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01413-2.

Nilsen KT, Walkowiak S, Xiang D, Gao P, Quilichini TD, Willick IR, Byrns B, N'Diaye A, Ens J, Wiebe K, Ruan Y, Cuthbert RD, Craze M, Wallington EJ, Simmonds J, Uauy C, Datla R, Pozniak CJ. 2020.  Copy number variation of TdDof controls solid-stemmed architecture in wheat. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2009418117. 

Walkowiak S, Gao L, Monat C, Haberer G, Kassa MT, Brinton J, Ramirez-Gonzalez RH, Kolodziej MC, Delorean E, Thambugala D, Klymiuk V, Byrns B, Gundlach H, Bandi V, Siri JN, Nilsen K, Aquino C, Himmelbach A, Copetti D, Ban T, Venturini L, Bevan M, Clavijo B, Koo DH, Ens J, Wiebe K, N'Diaye A, Fritz AK, Gutwin C, Fiebig A, Fosker C, Fu BX, Accinelli GG, Gardner KA, Fradgley N, Gutierrez-Gonzalez J, Halstead-Nussloch G, Hatakeyama M, Koh CS, Deek J, Costamagna AC, Fobert P, Heavens D, Kanamori H, Kawaura K, Kobayashi F, Krasileva K, Kuo T, McKenzie N, Murata K, Nabeka Y, Paape T, Padmarasu S, Percival-Alwyn L, Kagale S, Scholz U, Sese J, Juliana P, Singh R, Shimizu-Inatsugi R, Swarbreck D, Cockram J, Budak H, Tameshige T, Tanaka T, Tsuji H, Wright J, Wu J, Steuernagel B, Small I, Cloutier S, Keeble-Gagnère G, Muehlbauer G, Tibbets J, Nasuda S, Melonek J, Hucl PJ, Sharpe AG, Clark M, Legg E, Bharti A, Langridge P, Hall A, Uauy C, Mascher M, Krattinger SG, Handa H, Shimizu KK, Distelfeld A, Chalmers K, Keller B, Mayer KFX, Poland J, Stein N, McCartney CA, Spannagl M, Wicker T, Pozniak CJ. 2020.  Multiple wheat genomes reveal global variation in modern breeding. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2961-x.

Maccaferri M, Harris NS, Twardziok SO, Pasam RK, Gundlach H, Spannagl M, Ormanbekova D, Lux T, Prade VM, Milner SG, Himmelbach A, Mascher M, Bagnaresi P, Faccioli P, Cozzi P, Lauria M, Lazzari B, Stella A, Manconi A, Gnocchi M, Moscatelli M, Avni R, Deek J, Biyiklioglu S, Frascaroli E, Corneti S, Salvi S, Sonnante G, Desiderio F, Marè C, Crosatti C, Mica E, Özkan H, Kilian B, De Vita P, Marone D, Joukhadar R, Mazzucotelli E, Nigro D, Gadaleta A, Chao S, Faris JD, Melo ATO, Pumphrey M, Pecchioni N, Milanesi L, Wiebe K, Ens J, MacLachlan RP, Clarke JM, Sharpe AG, Koh CS, Liang KYH, Taylor GJ, Knox R, Budak H, Mastrangelo AM, Xu SS, Stein N, Hale I, Distelfeld A, Hayden MJ, Tuberosa R, Walkowiak S, Mayer KFX, Ceriotti A, Pozniak CJ, Cattivelli L. 2019.  Durum wheat genome highlights past domestication signatures and future improvement targets. Nature Genetics. doi: 10.1038/s41588-019-0381-3.

• Fellow of the Canadian Society of Agronomy, June 2025. 
• 2025 Plant Breeding and Genetics Award, Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Awards program.  November 2024
• Honorary Life Membership, Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association, January 2024
• Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for service in agriculture. International/ Saskatchewan Government. December 2022.
• International Conference Tourism Award, Tourism Saskatchewan/City of Saskatoon, October 2019.
• Top 20 Seed Industry Influencers, Germination Magazine, 2019
• Outstanding Leadership Award, Awarded by the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, 2019
• Award of Innovation, 19^th Saskatoon Achievement in Business Excellence (SABEX) Award, 2014
• Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, University of Saskatchewan, 2014
• Best Agronomy Paper, Canadian Society of Agronomy, 2013
• Young Researcher Award, University of Saskatchewan, 2010
• Young Agronomist Award, Canadian Society of Agronomy, 2010
• Best Research Poster Presentation, International Durum Wheat Symposium, 2008
• D. Outstanding Graduate Student, Department of Plant Sciences, U of S, 2001

• PLSC 411 - Plant Breeding
• PLSC 803 - Advanced Plant Breeding
• PLSC 816 - Quantitative Genetics