ARS | Publication request: Wheat-rye recombinants T2BS.2BL-2RL conferring resistance to Hessian fly (H21)

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: March 15, 2010
Publication Date: May 1, 2010
Citation: Cainong, J., Chen, M., Johnson, J., Friebe, B., Gill, B., Lukaszewski, A., Zavatsky, L. 2010. Wheat-rye recombinants T2BS.2BL-2RL conferring resistance to Hessian fly (H21). Crop Science. 50:920-925.

Interpretive Summary: The use of resistance genes in wheat is the most effective and cost efficient means to control Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor), a serious pest of wheat. H21 is one of the resistance genes that are still highly effective to Hessian fly populations in the fields. However, the usefulness of H21 in wheat breeding is limited due to unfavorable agronomic traits associated with the rye chromosomal arm that contains H21. This research has shortened the rye chromosomal arm to the distal ~20% region that still confers Hessian fly resistance in wheat lines. Wheat lines containing the shortened rye chromosomal fragment should be more useful in wheat improvement.

Technical Abstract: The Hessian fly, Maetiola destructor (Say), is a destructive insect pest of bread wheat Triticum aestivum L. worldwide. Although 32 genes conferring resistance to Hessian fly have been identified, only a few of them are still effective. One of such highly effective genes is H21, which was transferred to wheat from ‘Chaupon’ rye via a compensating T2BS.2R#2L Robertsonian whole-arm wheat-rye translocation. To broaden the use of T2BS.2R#2L in wheat improvement, we transferred the H21 resistance gene via homologous recombination to a T2BS.2BL-2R#2L recombinant chromosome consisting of the short arm of wheat chromosome 2B, most of the long arm of 2B, and the distal part derived from rye chromosome 2R. The distal rye segment in T2BS.2BL-2R#2L contributes about 20% of the long arm, whereas the proximal 80% of this arm is derived from 2BL of wheat. The recombinant T2BS.2BL-2R#2L stock confers resistance to Hessian fly, indicating that the 2R#2L segment in T2BS.2BL-2R#2L harbors the H21 resistance gene. The T2BS.2BL-2R#2L recombinant chromosome has been transferred to adapted winter and spring wheat cultivars. The approach illustrates the usefulness of the existing wheat-alien chromosome stocks even when they were originally made from stocks not containing the currently desired loci of interest.