stem rust

The quest for durable rust resistance in wheat is burgeoning with the emergence of new virulent races. Breeders challenged with this unceasing plant-pathogen arms race have to devise strategies for effective evaluation and exploitation of the rust resistance genes. Considering the likely presence of useful variation for rust resistance in CIMMYT’s international bread wheat screening nurseries (IBWSN), we implemented genomic prediction in the 45^th and 46^th IBWSN entries to determine their genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV’s) for leaf, stem and stripe rust resistance. The 350 lines (45^th IBWSN) and 329 lines (46^th IBWSN) were phenotyped in replicated trials over two to three years in El Batan, Mexico (leaf rust); Njoro, Kenya (stem rust) and Toluca, Mexico (stripe rust). The filtered genotyping data for these two nurseries comprised of 6,786 and 11,218 genotyping by sequencing (GBS) markers. Our objective was to compare the GEBV’s estimated by four different models: multiple linear regression (MLR) with QTL-linked markers as fixed effects; Genomic-best linear unbiased prediction (G-BLUP); G-BLUP mixed model which includes QTL linked markers as fixed effects and Bayesian least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). We observed that the prediction accuracies (calculated using 10-fold cross validation) were the highest for stripe rust (0.52 to 0.61), followed by stem rust (0.42 to 0.65) and leaf rust (0.15 to 0.45). Among the models, the MLR gave the lowest prediction accuracies (0.15,0.42 and 0.52), while G-BLUP (0.45,0.59 and 0.59), mixed G-BLUP (0.38,0.65 and 0.62) and the Bayesian LASSO (0.45,0.58 and 0.61) yielded relatively higher and almost similar accuracies. Overall, our results are promising and indicate that using genome-wide markers is advantageous than including only significant QTL-linked markers. We hope that implementing genomic prediction in breeding programs, would help to achieve rapid gains from selection and revolutionize our efforts in combating the rust pathogen.

Stem rust is a major threat to wheat production in Georgia. Breeding for resistance to the rusts is a major strategy for wheat improvement programs. Our objective was determination of the stem rust resistance levels in entries of the 4^nd International Winter Wheat Stem Rust Resistance Nursery. Responses of 85 varieties/lines were evaluated in an inoculated field nursery. A coefficient of infection (CI) and area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) were estimated for each entry. Fifteen entries (T03/17, TAM-107/T21, SD92107-2/SD99W042, KS95U522/TX95VA0011/F1/JAGGER, AR800-1-3-1/NW97S320, FL9547/NC00-14622, FL9547/TX00D1626, TAM302/KS93U450, MCCORMİCK/TREGO, NC00-14622/2137, TAM200/KAUZ//GOLDMARK/3/BETTY, KS920709-B-5-1-1/BURBOT-4, AFINA SOMNEZ, TAM200/KAUZ/4/BEZ/NAD//KZM(ES85.24/3/F900K) were resistant; 39 showed moderate resistance; 15 were scored MR-MS and 17 were moderately susceptible. Most of entries had very low CI (0.2 - 0.5) and AUPDC (less than 10.0); the best including T07/08, T07/09, T08/02, T08/01, T08/02, T08/04, CAKET/PEHLIVAN, ID800994.W/VEE//PIOPIO/3/MNCH/4/FDL4/KAUZ, PBI1013.13.3/3233.35 /3/STAR//KAUZ/STAR, DULGER-1//VORONA/BAU, ZANDER-17/3/YE2453/KA//1D13.1/MLT, 55-1744/7C//SU/RDL/3/CROW/4/MILAN/5/ITOR, 1D13.1/MLT//TUI/3/S?NMEZ/4/ATAY/GALVEZ87, TAM107//ATAY/GALVEZ87, HBF0290/X84W063-9-39-2//ARH/3/LE2301, STAR/BWD/3/PRL/VEE#6//CLMS, FRTL//AGRI/NAC/3/KALYOZ-17, CV. RODİNA/AE.SPELTOİDES10 KR, TAM 107//ATAY/ GALVEZ87, and 06393GP1. The severities for susceptible entries varied from 20 to 70%, with checks Morocco and Bezostaya 1 at 80% and 60%, respectively.  However, the majority of entries (94%) had average CI of 0.2 - 20 and five entries with CI 21 - 40 had high to moderate levels of resistance.

Resistance is the most economically viable approach to curb the threat of rusts in wheat. The defeat of Sr31 and vulnerability of other resistance genes to the highly virulent Pgt race Ug99 and variants led to renewed efforts to discover and deploy resistance genes/QTLs in new durably resistant varieties. Akuri is a CIMMYT-developed bread wheat line exhibiting adult plant resistance (APR) in field trials in Kenya despite susceptibility to many races at the seedling stage. This study was designed to identify genomic regions contributing APR to stem rust in Akuri. One hundred and forty one RILs and parents of an F_2:5 Akuri x PBW343 population were evaluated in Njoro for APR to stem rust over three seasons. Composite interval mapping was implemented on Windows QTL Cartographer to detect QTLs at a LOD threshold of 2.5 utilizing 910 high quality SNPs previously typed on the DArT-GBS platform. Preliminary QTL analyses revealed loci on chromosomes 1B, 2B and 3B consistently contributing to stem rust resistance. These QTL respectively explained ~7, 9, and 8% of the phenotypic variation. A comparison with the recently reported QTL consensus map revealed that the QTL herein discovered are probably novel. Work is underway to saturate the identified genomic regions with microsatellite markers to identify candidate, linked markers for use in marker assisted selection (MAS)

Four Ug99 pathotypes occur in southern Africa. Although South African bread wheat cultivars and lines are regularly screened against representative isolates, the stem rust reactions of Zimbabwean germplasm to these variants were largely unknown. A collection of 49 wheat cultivars and lines, obtained from Seed-Co (Ltd.) and the Crop Breeding Institute in Zimbabwe, were tested as seedlings against pathotypes TTKSF, TTKSF+, TTKSP and PTKST. Twelve varieties and 21 experimental lines showed low infection types with all four pathotypes. Using molecular marker assays Sr31 was detected in 26 entries, Sr24 in five and Sr36 in one. The csSr2 marker suggested the presence of Sr2 in 20 entries. Screening of adult plants in the greenhouse using pathotype PTKST showed 34 entries with low infection types and 15 had high infection types. Stem rust field records in 2012 showed 5 susceptible entries with stem rust scores between 50S and 80S, whereas only 4 susceptible entries were identified in 2014 with scores ranging from 30S to 80S. Three lines were susceptible in both seasons. The study exposed the vulnerability of Zimbabwean wheat germplasm to Ug99 variants, but also identified suitable lines that can be used in breeding and possible commercialization.