Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research
Project Number: 2050-21000-038-036-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Aug 31, 2028
Objective:
Discover, characterize, and map effective resistance in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) against stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. hordei) and other barley diseases including scald (caused by Rhynchosporium commune), yellow dwarf virus (caused by viruses in the Luteoviridae family), and bacterial leaf streak (caused by Xanthomonas translucens) to protect U.S. barley production by: 1) evaluation of elite cultivated barley breeding lines; 2) development of genetic populations; 3) transfer disease resistance from wild barley into Oregon elite barley lines .
Approach:
We will support U.S. barley breeding programs by testing their elite barley breeding germplasm in our Barley Stripe Rust Screening Trial (BSRST) in Corvallis, OR. The BSRST will include new and previously-tested entries from public barley breeding programs in California, Oregon, Montana, and Washington, as well food barley breeding lines from the USDA-ARS barley breeding program in Aberdeen, ID. The BSRST will be sown in a randomized complete block design with two replications of single-row plots. We will plant susceptible spreader rows of VA14H-58 as borders as well as within the trial to increase inoculum. To supplement natural infection, we will apply 2–3 inoculations of spores collected from spreader rows during the previous season. We will score disease severity according to the percentage of the leaf area infected with barley stripe rust. We will also score resistance to scald and/or barley yellow dwarf virus if these diseases are present. We will analyze the results and draft a report to distribute to the U.S. barley breeding programs which submitted germplasm. We will also make the report publicly available by publishing it online at http://barleyworld.org/barley-stripe-rust-bsr. We will make crosses between BSR-resistant wild barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. spontaneum) and susceptible cultivated barley and develop genetic populations via single seed descent (SSD) and/or doubled haploid. In addition, backcrosses will be conducted to transfer BSR resistance from wild barley into the elite lines developed by Oregon State University to develop new disease resistant germplasm by combining conventional methods and marker-assisted selection.