bread wheat

This is the first study on the inheritance and genetic mapping of resistance to the barley grass stripe rust pathogen (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. pseudohordei – Psph) in bread wheat. Psph, commonly infects barley grass (Hordeum leporinum, H. murinum), but about 10% of commercial barley varieties are also susceptible. We tested over 500 diverse wheat accessions and determined that less than 20% were susceptible at the seedling stage suggesting wheat is an ‘intermediate’ host to Psph. The Australian variety Teal is highly susceptible to Psph at the seedling stage, whereas selections Avocet S and Avocet R are highly resistant and resistant, respectively. We used the Teal/AvocetR doubled haploid (DH) population to characterize the resistance of Avocet R to Psph and determine whether the complementary genes Yr73 and Yr74 (YrA resistance) in Avocet R conferred resistance to Psph. Phenotypic comparison of the Teal/AvocetR DH lines in response to both Psph and Pst showed that all DH lines carrying YrA were also resistant to Psph; however, fewer DH lines were susceptible to Psph suggesting additional resistance genes. Marker-trait association analysis detected three DArT-Seq markers significantly associated with resistance to Psph, two mapping to chromosomes 3DL and 5BL in the same regions as Yr73 and Yr74 and the third mapping to chromosome 4A. Single gene stocks with the 4A gene and combinations of the 5BL and 3DL genes will be used for monitoring avirulence/virulence within Australian Psph population. Genetic analysis of seedling-susceptible T/AvR DH lines as adult plants in the greenhouse determined that Teal and Avocet R each carried at least one APR gene effective against Psph.