ARS | Publication request: REGISTRATION OF KS96WGRC37 POWDERY MILDEW-RESISTANT HARD WHITE WINTER WHEAT GERMPLASM

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 31, 1998
Publication Date: June 28, 2002
Citation: BROWN GUEDIRA,G.L., COX,T.S., GILL,B.S., SEARS,R.G., LEATH,S. ., REGISTRATION OF KS96WGRC37 POWDERY MILDEW-RESISTANT HARD WHITE WINTER WHEAT GERMPLASM, CROP SCIENCE, 2002.

Interpretive Summary: The disease powdery mildew of wheat is capable of causing large losses of yield when infection is heavy. To slow the development of new races of the fungus that are able to attack resistant cultivars, wheat breeders need a large supply of new resistance genes. Many strains of the wild relatives of wheat have genes for resistance to powdery mildew. We used a strain of the wild relative, Triticum timopheevii subsp. aremeniacum, to pollinate susceptible hard winter wheat cultivars. We then used backcrossing to transfer a new gene for resistance to powdery mildew into germplasm line KS96WGRC37. This gene should be useful to wheat breeders who are developing powdery mildew-resistant cultivars.

Technical Abstract: New leaf genes for resistance to powdery mildew in agronomically adapted backgrounds are needed in the winter wheat region. KS96WGRC37 is a BC2F3-derived hard white winter wheat germplasm resistant to powdery mildew with the pedigree 'Arlin'*3/TA 895. Arlin is a hard white winter wheat cultivar and TA 895 is a powdery mildew-resistant accession of Triticum timopheevii subsp. armeniacum from northern Iraq. Seedlings of KS96WGRC37 exhibited a low to intermediate infection type (<4 on a scale of 0 to 9) when inoculated with isolate 8 of Erysiphe graminis f. sp. tritici, the causal agent of powdery mildew. Isolate 8 elicits a high infection type on the gene Pm6, which was transferred previously from Triticum timopheevii subsp. timopheevii. Detached leaves of Arlin and KS96WGRC37 were incolated with 37 diverse isolates of E. graminis f. sp. tritici. Arlin had a low infection type (0) with one isolate, an intermediate infection type (4) with one isolate, and a high infection type with the remaining 35 isolates. KS96WGRC37 had a low infection type (0-3) with nine, and intermediate infection type (4-6) with 25, and a high infection type (7-9) with three isolates. KS96WGRC37 is similar to Arlin in height, days to heading, kernel color, and overall phenotype.