Abstract
Stem rust caused by <i>Puccinia graminis</i> is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat which causing considerable yield losses in wheat-growing areas in Ethiopia. Disease-resistant cultivars provide one of the best means for controlling stem rust. The current study aimed to evaluate wheat genotypes for seedling and adult plant stage resistance for the predominant wheat stem rust races; TTTTF. Both seedling and adult plant stage evaluations were conducted on 203 wheat genotypes under greenhouse and field conditions. Seedling and adult plant stage evaluations were conducted using artificial inoculation of the race TTTTF. Augmented and completely randomized designs were used for field and seedling tests, respectively. Three susceptible and two resistance check genotypes were used for field evaluation for each block. Seedling evaluation results showed 85% of the genotypes exhibited resistance infection type (<2). Field phenotyping results revealed 72%, 22% and 6% of the genotypes showed resistance (<15%), moderately resistance (20-35%) and susceptible (>40) reaction for stem rust race TTTTF. From the ANOVA table, highly significant variation between test and check genotypes was observed for different disease parameters and TKW. High and positive correlations existed between different disease parameters and a negative correlation was observed between TKW and disease parameters. Based on field and seedling evaluation, a total of 151 genotypes were selected for future breeding pipelines. Therefore, resistant wheat genotypes identified in the current study will be a potential source of genotypes for further wheat breeding and pathological research activities.
Highlights
Wheat is one of the most important food security crops in the world, accounting for a sizeable share of the global calories and protein consumed [1]
Despite the enormous economic and dietary values of the crop, the production of wheat in Ethiopia remained low as compared to the demand and still, wheat importing is the main source of wheat self-sufficiency in the country
High phenotypic variation was observed for both seedling and adult plant stage evaluation between test, check and deferential lines used in this study
Summary
Wheat is one of the most important food security crops in the world, accounting for a sizeable share of the global calories and protein consumed [1]. It is a staple food in the diets of several Ethiopian, providing about 15% of the caloric intake for the country’s over 90 million populations [2], placing it second after Maize and slightly ahead of Teff, Sorghum, and Enset, which contribute 10 to 12 percent each [3]. Biotic and abiotic factors are the main source of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics 2021; 6(3): 47-53 bottlenecks in Ethiopia for wheat production [4]. Rust diseases (stem, stripe, and leaf rust) are the major and economically important biotic factors for wheat production in Ethiopia [6, 7]
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