New QTL for leaf rust and stripe rust resistance in four bread wheat and two durum wheat mapping populations

Wheat leaf rust (LR) and stripe rust (YR), caused by the air-borne fungi Puccinia triticina (Pt) and Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), respectively, are considered the primary biotic threats to bread wheat and durum wheat production globally. Growing resistant wheat varieties is a key method of minimizing the extent of yield losses caused by these diseases. Bread wheat lines Francolin #1, Kenya Kongoni, Kundan and Sujata, and CIMMYT-derived durum wheat lines Bairds and Dunkler display an adequate level of adult plant resistance (APR) to both leaf rust and stripe rust in Mexican field environments. Six recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations developed from crosses Avocet/Francolin #1, Avocet/Kenya Kongoni, Avocet/Kundan, Avocet/Sujata, Atred#1/Bairds and Atred#1/Dunkler were phenotyped for leaf rust response at Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, and the bread wheat populations for stripe rust response at Toluca for under artificial inoculations for multiple seasons. The RIL populations and their parents were genotyped with the 50 K diversity arrays technology (DArT) sequence system and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Known pleotropic APR genes Lr46/Yr29 mapped in all of six populations, and explained 7.4-65.1% and 7.7-66.1% severity variations for LR and YR across different bread wheat populations and accounted for 12.4-60.8% of LR severity variations over two durum wheat populations. In addition, several new APR loci identified on chromosomes 1AS, 1DS, 2BS, 2BL, 3D and 7BL in bread wheat and QTL on chromosome 6BL in durum wheat. Among these loci, QTL on chromosomes 1AS, 3D and 7BL might be represent new co-located/pleotropic loci conferring APR to LR and YR. RILs combining these APR loci can be used as sources of complex APR in both bread wheat and durum wheat breeding. In addition, the closely linked single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers have been converted into breeder-friendly kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) markers and their diagnostic verified.