Evaluation of Ethiopian Bread Wheat Cultivars for Slow Rusting Resistance to Yellow Rust (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Puccinia striiformis&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; f.s Tritici)

Alemu Ayele Zerihun

doi:10.11648/j.ajls.20210904.11

Abstract

Wheat stripe rust (<i>Puccinia striiformis</i> f.s. <i>tritici</i>) is the greatest vicious rust disease in wheat-growing areas of Ethiopia. The cultivating of cultivars with polygenic gene resistance is the most efficient way of monitoring the disease. Field experiments were carried out at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center main station and, Meraro and Bekoji substations of Ethiopia during 2019 to 2020 main cropping seasons to disclose variability for field based adult plant resistance to yellow rust among 25 newly developed bread wheat cultivars advanced in Ethiopia. Features used as criteria to identify adult plant resistance comprised response of wheat cultivars to yellow rust, Coefficient of infection (CI), relative final rust severity (FRS) and area under disease progress curve (rAUDPC) were found to be reliable to evaluate slow rusting in the cultivars. The outcomes shown that wheat cultivar only Balcha had low disease severity (< 30%) with MRMS reaction, lower rAUDPC values (>30%) and CI (< 20) and were recognized to have good level of adult plant resistance while eighty eight percent of the tested cultivars exhibited susceptible and grouped under low slow rusting resistance with high disease pressure over all three locations. Cultivars Dashen, Daka, Wane and Sanate had moderate values for slow rusting parameters and were recognized as having moderate level of slow rusting. The slow rusting cultivars identified from the present work can be used for extra management in wheat development programs.

Highlights

Wheat yellow rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis is one of the most prevalent and damaging diseases of wheat globally [1], in cool climates, present in almost all the wheat growing areas of the world and a formidable threat to global wheat production [2,3,4]
There is wide difference in the severities of wheat stripe rust ranging from trace to 90% at all location during the 2019 and cropping seasons at the Kulumsa Agricultural research center main stations and Meraro and Bekoji substations
The tested wheat cultivars based on final rust severities were grouped into three groups slow rusting resistance that are high, intermediate and low levels of adult plant resistance with ranges of 1-30, 31-50 and 51-100% final rust severities values respectively

Summary

Introduction

Wheat yellow rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis is one of the most prevalent and damaging diseases of wheat globally [1], in cool climates, present in almost all the wheat growing areas of the world and a formidable threat to global wheat production [2,3,4]. Slow rusting resistance is a type of resistance that is characterized by a reduced rate of epidemic development despite compatible host pathogen interaction [12, 13]. It is polygenic and effective against a broad range of yellow rust races [14,15,16]. The present study was planned to evaluate the levels of slow rusting resistance in some currently cultivated commercial bread wheat cultivars to yellow rust under field conditions. =0.4, Moderately Resistant to Moderately Susceptible (MRMS) =0.6, Moderately Susceptible (MS) =0.8, Moderately Susceptible to Susceptible (MSS) =0.9, Susceptible (S) =1

AUDPC and rAUDPC Value

Final Rust Severity

Area Under Disease Curve and Relative Area Disease

Conclusion