Disease resistance of primary hexaploid synthetic wheat and its crosses with bread wheat

Hexaploid synthetics have become widely used in bread wheat improvement in recent years, enabling the introduction of specific traits as well as enhancing genetic diversity and development of valuable germplasm. This study demonstrated the difference between two groups of primary synthetics in terms of development rate, plant height, rust reactions, and productivity components. During 2015 and 2016, three groups of synthetics were studied in Azerbaijan (3 sites): Baku (0 masl) under irrigated conditions, Gobustan (850 masl) under dry rainfed conditions and Ujar (20 masl) under irrigated conditions with high salinity. Germplasm was also evaluated for diseases and agronomic traits in Omsk (Russia) in 2016.
All primary synthetics were resistant to leaf rust, several to stem rust, and few to stripe rust. Stripe rust occurred in all years at all sites, proving its importance as major wheat pathogen. Its severity reached intermediate levels in Baku in 2016 (33.7%) and in Gobustan in 2015 (26.8%), and epidemic level in Gobustan in 2016 (72.7%). Gobustan also experienced high levels of stem rust in 2016. These two diseases substantially reduced grain productivity in Gobustan in 2016, especially 1000 kernel weight (30.2 g) and grain weight per spike (1.17 g). . Superior genotypes from all three groups were identified that combine high expression of spike productivity traits and stress tolerance index. Five superior synthetics were selected from each of the three groups, based on grain weight per spike. Only four of these demonstrated resistance to stripe rust (entries 13, 15, 31, and 32). Japanese synthetics (group 3) were susceptible to stripe rust but all demonstrated resistance to stem rust. Synthetics from groups 1 and 3 were all resistant to leaf rust when tested under severe disease pressure in Omsk in 2016.