Identification and mapping of two adult plant leaf rust resistance genes in durum wheat

Abstract

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-derived durum wheat line Quetru is moderately resistant to leaf rust and displays disease severities of 15–30% at the adult plant stage. Atil C2000 is moderately susceptible to leaf rust at adult plant stage and displays severities of 20–60%. These two durum wheats were crossed with the susceptible line Atred#1, and the respective recombinant inbred line populations were phenotyped for resistance to leaf rust in field trials in four environments in Mexico. The phenotypic segregation in the Atred#1 × Atil C2000 population was attributed to the pleiotropic adult plant resistance (APR) gene Lr46 based on the closest marker cslv46G22 located within 1.4 cM. Lr46 reduced leaf rust severity by 19.6–35.5%, and it was also identified in the Atred#1 × Quetru population, where it reduced leaf rust severity by 28.5–57.7% depending on the environment. We also identified a putatively novel, race-specific APR gene LrQ in Quetru that is located on the Chromosome 6BL and flanked by SNP markers AX-95144243 and AX-95155193. These two markers have been converted into kompetitive allele–specific PCR (KASP) markers and validated in the population. LrQ was ineffective at the seedling stage but reduced leaf rust severity by 37.3% on average over four field trials. The combination of LrQ and Lr46 resulted in significantly reduced leaf rust severity in the field and could be used to breed improved durum wheat varieties.