Virulence in the Puccinia triticina population in the Czech Republic and resistance genes in registered cultivars 1966–2019

Abstract

We present a summary of Puccinia triticina virulence surveys in former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic from the 1960s to 2019. Cultivars Malakoff, Carina, Brevit, Webster, Loros, Mediterranean, Hussar, Democrat and, later Salzmünder Bartweizen, were used as differentials until 2002. Thereafter tests were carried out on Thatcher near-isogenic lines (NILs) possessing resistance genes Lr1, Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr2c, Lr3a, Lr9, Lr10, Lr11, Lr13, Lr15, Lr17a, Lr19, Lr21, Lr23, Lr24, Lr26 and Lr28. In tests with differential cultivars, races 14, 77, 61, 53 and 2 progressively prevailed, first avirulent to cultivar Salzmünder Bartweizen and later virulent. In tests with NILs the average virulence frequency to most Lr lines was above 50%. Virulences below 50% included Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr2c, Lr24 and Lr28, and below 1% Lr9 and Lr19. During the 1960s and 1970s Lr3a and Lr26 were commonly used resistance genes. In the first decades of the 21st century genes Lr37 and Lr10 prevailed. We used molecular markers to postulate the presence of Lr1, Lr3a, Lr10, Lr24, Lr26, Lr28, Lr34 and Lr37 in winter wheat cultivars registered in the Czech Republic.