Durable resistance to Puccinia triticina by accumulation of resistance genes

Abstract

The individual use of single race-specific resistance genes with major phenotypic effects has rarely provided lasting resistance. However, breeding and combining or pyramiding of resistance genes into individual cultivars has had considerable success, particularly in situations in which the pathogen does not reproduce sexually, as in the case of wheat leaf rust pathogen. In European-Mediterranean region perfomed international investigations of wheat leaf rust proved that breeding of new lines of wheat resistant to Puccinia triticina Eriks. for differentiation of pathogen population, as well as for sources of durable resistance is necessary. Breeding of such resistant lines has proved necessary due to the unsatisfatory survey results of these regions on standard isogenic Lr lines. It has become clear that these regions needed new, more efficient differential resistance genes, as well as sources of resistance. In the beginning, after extensive screening tests of several International Rust Nurseries, 18 donors of resistance had been selected as crosses with recurrent parents' varieties Princ and Starke. These hybrid lines had been comparatively tested with twenty six Lr single gene lines using twenty especially virulent cultures of P. triticina in order to check the presence of these known Lr genes in our hybrid lines. Considerable influence of recurrent parent to the number of resistant genes in used donors was demonstrated. On the other hand, considerable influence of the pathogen culture was established to the number of resistance genes in used donors. In order to enhance resistance and pyramiding genes in these hybrids, the most interesting selected eight lines have been crossed with only effective isogenic ones, containing the strong genes Lr9, Lr19 and Lr24. On the basis of different segregation rations of all crossing combinations it was proved that no one of resistant donors contained the applied strong resistant genes. It means that our hybrid lines contained resistant genes from the donors, as well as three strong resistant genes Lr9, Lr19 and Lr24.