Key messageThe stripe rust resistance geneYr34 was transferred to polyploid wheat chromosome 5AL from T. monococcumand has been used for over two centuries.Wheat stripe (or yellow) rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is currently among the most damaging fungal diseases of wheat worldwide. In this study, we report that the stripe rust resistance gene Yr34 (synonym Yr48) is located within a distal segment of the cultivated Triticum monococcum subsp. monococcum chromosome 5AmL translocated to chromosome 5AL in polyploid wheat. The diploid wheat species Triticum monococcum (genome AmAm) is closely related to T. urartu (donor of the A genome to polyploid wheat) and has good levels of resistance against the stripe rust pathogen. When present in hexaploid wheat, the T. monococcum Yr34 resistance gene confers a moderate level of resistance against virulent Pst races present in California and the virulent Chinese race CYR34. In a survey of 1,442 common wheat genotypes, we identified 5AmL translocations of fourteen different lengths in 17.5% of the accessions, with higher frequencies in Europe than in other continents. The old European wheat variety “Mediterranean” was identified as a putative source of this translocation, suggesting that Yr34 has been used for over 200 years. Finally, we designed diagnostic CAPS and sequenced-based markers that will be useful to accelerate the deployment of Yr34 in wheat breeding programs to improve resistance to this devastating pathogen.

Take-all is a devastating soil-borne disease that affects wheat production. The continuous generation of disease-resistance germplasm is an important aspect of the management of this pathogen. In this study, we characterized the wheat-Psathyrostachys huashania Keng (P. huashania)-derived progeny H139 that exhibits significantly improved resistance to wheat take-all disease compared with its susceptible parent 7182. Sequential genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) and multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (mc-FISH) analyses revealed that H139 is a stable wheat-P. huashania disomic substitution line lacking wheat chromosome 2D. Expressed sequence tag-sequence tagged site (EST-STS) marker and Wheat Axiom 660K Genotyping Array analysis further revealed that H139 was a novel wheat-P. huashania 2Ns/2D substitution line. In addition, the H139 line was shown to be cytologically stable with a dwarf phenotype and increased spikelet number. These results indicate that H139, with its enhanced wheat take-all disease resistance and desirable agronomic traits, provides valuable genetic resources for wheat chromosome engineering breeding.

Wheat stem (or black) rust is one of the most devastating fungal diseases, threatening global wheat production. Identification, mapping, and deployment of effective resistance genes are critical to addressing this challenge. In this study, we mapped and characterized one stem rust resistance (Sr) gene from the tetraploid durum wheat variety Kronos (temporary designation SrKN). This gene was mapped on the long arm of chromosome 2B and confers resistance to multiple virulent Pgt races, such as TRTTF and BCCBC. Using a large mapping population (3,366 gametes), we mapped SrKN within a 0.29 cM region flanked by the sequenced-based markers pku4856F2R2 and pku4917F3R3, which corresponds to 5.6- and 7.2-Mb regions in the Svevo and Chinese Spring reference genomes, respectively. Both regions include a cluster of nucleotide binding leucine-repeat (NLR) genes that likely includes the candidate gene. An allelism test failed to detect recombination between SrKN and the previously mapped Sr9e gene. This result, together with the similar seedling resistance responses and resistance profiles, suggested that SrKN and Sr9e may represent the same gene. We introgressed SrKN into common wheat and developed completely linked markers to accelerate its deployment in the wheat breeding programs. SrKN can be a valuable component of transgenic cassettes or gene pyramids that includes multiple resistance genes to control this devastating disease.

No abstract

No abstract