The endophyte Piriformospora indica colonizes roots of a range of host plants and increases biomass production and resistance to fungal pathogens and, thus has been considered a biocontrol fungus. However, the field performance of this fungus has not yet been tested in temperate climates. Therefore, we evaluated the performance of this fungus in different substrata under greenhouse and practical field conditions. Roots of winter wheat were colonized efficiently, and biomass was particularly increased on poor substrata. In greenhouse experiments, symptom severity of a typical leaf (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici), stem base (Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides), and root (Fusarium culmorum) pathogen was reduced significantly. However, in field experiments, symptoms caused by the leaf pathogen did not differ in Piriformospora indica-colonized compared with control plants. In the field, Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides disease severity was significantly reduced in plants colonized by the endophyte. Increased numbers of sheath layers and hydrogen peroxide concentrations after B. graminis attack were detected in Piriformospora indica-colonized plants, suggesting that root colonization causes induction of systemic resistance or priming of the host plant. Although the endophyte is not well suited for growth at Central European temperature conditions, it remains to be shown whether P. indica is more suitable for tropical or subtropical farming.

Wheat stem rust samples were collected in 2006 and 2007 in the Arsi, Bale, Shewa and northwest regions of Ethiopia to determine virulence diversity and race distribution in Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici populations. Stem rust incidence was high in Arsi, Bale and east Shewa. In northwest Ethiopia, and north and west Shewa, stem rust was prevalent at low levels. A total of 152 isolates was analysed and 22 races were identified. Races TTKSR (Ug99), TTHSR and RRTTR were predominant, with frequencies of 26·6, 17·7 and 11·1%, respectively. These races were also detected in all regions. The highly virulent race designated Ug99 was present throughout the country and dominated in all regions except northwest Ethiopia. A variant of Ug99 virulent against the stem rust resistance gene Sr24 was not detected in this study. Four stem rust resistance genes ( Sr13, Sr30, Sr36 and SrTm p) were found to confer resistance to most of the races prevalent in Ethiopia. With the exception of Sr30 , which is not effective against Ug99, these genes could be used in breeding for resistance to stem rust in Ethiopia.

From 2001 to 2003, leaf rust was collected in different regions of Germany and the Russian Federation to generate single spore isolates and to study the structure of the pathogen populations by analyses of virulence. The virulence of isolates was tested with 38 near-isogenic lines each carrying a different resistance gene. The analyses of variance revealed significant effects for the frequency of virulent isolates, the regions and most interactions with years and regions, but no significance was found for the effects of years. In Germany, an increase of virulence frequencies was detected for Lr1 and Lr2a while a decrease was found for Lr3a, Lr3bg and Lr3ka. Such clear trends did not occur in Russia which may be due to the great agroclimatic differences between regions. The variance of the frequency of virulent isolates was used to estimate adequate sample sizes for the analysis of regional populations of leaf rust. This procedure resulted in more reliable information about the dynamic processes within the pathogen populations. In 2002 and 2003, all pathotypes in Germany had a combined virulence to Lr1, Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr15, Lr17 and Lr20 supplemented by a few other genes. The complexity of virulence was lower in the most frequent pathotypes. In Russia virulence to the alleles at locus Lr3 was very common. Using detached leaf segments in Germany and Russia it turned out that the most virulent pathotypes carry 34 and 32 virulence genes, respectively. Virulence to Lr9, Lr19, Lr24 and Lr38 was rare or even absent. The use of major genes, not overcome by corresponding virulent pathotypes, may contribute to more durable types of resistance in case they are combined with genes having different effects, e.g. adult plant resistance.www.blackwell-synergy.com

Breeding for resistance is an efficient strategy to manage wheat leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina f. sp. tritici. However, a prerequisite for the directed use of Lr genes in breeding and the detection of new races virulent to these Lr genes is a detailed knowledge on Lr genes present in wheat cultivars. Therefore, respective molecular markers for 18 Lr genes were tested for specificity and used to determine Lr genes in 115 wheat cultivars. Results obtained were compared to available pedigree data. Using respective molecular markers, genes Lr1, Lr10, Lr26, Lr34 and Lr37 were detected, but data were not always in accordance with pedigree data. However, leaf rust scoring data of field trials confirmed the reliability of DNA markers. These reliable marker data facilitated the analyses of the development of virulent leaf rust races from 2002 to 2009 based on released cultivars. A sudden change from low infection rates to susceptibility was observed for Lr1, Lr3, Lr10, Lr13, Lr14, Lr16, Lr26 and Lr37 since 2006. Cultivars carrying several leaf rust resistance genes showed no significant shift to susceptibility except one cultivar which revealed an increasing infection rate at a low level. In summary, it turned out that pedigree data are often not reliable and a detection of Lr genes by diagnostic markers is fundamental to combine Lr genes in cultivars for a durable resistance against leaf rust, and to conduct reliable surveys based on released cultivars, instead of 'Thatcher' NILs.

The present study aimed to localize exotic quantitative trait locus (QTL) alleles for the improvement of leaf rust (P. triticina) resistance in an advanced backcross (AB) population, B22, which is derived from a cross between the winter wheat cultivar Batis (Triticum aestivum) and the synthetic wheat accession Syn022L. The latter was developed from hybridization of T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides and T. tauschii. Altogether, 250 BC 2 F 3 lines of B22 were assessed for seedling resistance against the leaf rust isolate 77WxR under controlled conditions. In addition, field resistance against leaf rust was evaluated by assessing symptom severity under natural infestation across multiple environments. Simultaneously, population B22 was genotyped with a total of 97 SSR markers, distributed over the wheat A, B and D genomes. The phenotype and genotype data were subjected to QTL analysis by applying a 3-factorial mixed model analysis of variance including the marker genotype as a fixed effect and the environments, the lines and the marker by environment interactions as random effects. The QTL analysis revealed six putative QTLs for seedling resistance and seven for field resistance. For seedling resistance, the effects of exotic QTL alleles improved resistance at all detected loci. The maximum decrease of disease symptoms (-46.3%) was associated with marker locus Xbarc149 on chromosome 1D. For field resistance, two loci had stable main effects across environments and five loci exhibited marker by environment interaction effects. The strongest effects were detected at marker locus Xbarc149 on chromosome 1D, at which the exotic allele decreased seedling symptoms by 46.3% and field symptoms by 43.6%, respectively. Some of the detected QTLs co-localized with known resistance genes, while others appear to be as novel resistance loci. Our findings indicate, that the exotic wheat accession Syn022L may be useful for the improvement of leaf rust resistance in cultivated wheat.