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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Cereal Disease Lab » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #288869

Title: Physiologic specialization of Puccinia triticina on wheat in the United States in 2011

Author
item Kolmer, James
item Hughes, Mark

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/8/2013
Publication Date: 7/1/2013
Citation: Kolmer, J.A., Hughes, M.E. 2013. Physiologic specialization of Puccinia triticina on wheat in the United States in 2011. Plant Disease. 97:1103-1108.

Interpretive Summary: Wheat is attacked by the rust fungus called Puccinia triticina, which causes the disease wheat leaf rust. There are many different forms or races of the wheat leaf rust fungus that vary in their ability to attack different resistance genes in wheat. Every year the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory makes collections of the wheat leaf rust fungus from the major wheat growing regions of the United States to determine which forms of P. triticina are present. In 2011, 87 different forms of the leaf rust fungus were found in the United States. The forms with virulence to the resistance gene in the commonly grown hard red winter wheats were widespread throughout the eastern states and the Great Plains region. The races with virulence to the genes present in the soft red winter wheats were found in the eastern states and the Ohio Valley region. The most commonly grown hard red winter wheat cultivars and soft red winter wheat cultivars are susceptible to the most common leaf rust races found in the regions where these wheat cultivars are grown. In 2011 many new races were detected for the first time. These new races will likely increase and cause increased yield losses due to leaf rust in future years. It will be important to develop wheat cultivars with new combinations of leaf rust resistance genes in the winter wheat regions. These results are used by wheat breeders and plant pathologists to help develop wheat cultivars that are very resistant to the leaf rust disease.

Technical Abstract: Collections of Puccinia triticina were obtained from rust-infected leaves provided by cooperators throughout the United States and from wheat fields and breeding plots by USDA-ARS personnel and cooperators in the Great Plains, Ohio River Valley, southeastern states, Oregon and Washington State in order to determine the virulence of the wheat leaf rust population in 2011. Single uredinial isolates (440 total) were derived from the collections and tested for virulence phenotype on 18 lines of Thatcher wheat and a winter wheat line that are near-isogenic for 19 leaf rust resistance genes. In 2011, 87 virulence phenotypes were described in the United States. Virulence phenotypes TBBGJ, MLDSD, and TCRKG were the three most common phenotypes. Phenotype TBBGJ is virulent to Lr39/41 and was widely distributed throughout the hard red winter wheat region of the Great Plains. Phenotype MLDSD is virulent to Lr17 and Lr39/Lr41 and was widely distributed throughout the United States. Phenotype TCRKG is virulent to Lr11, Lr18 and Lr26 and was found mostly in the soft red winter wheat region in the eastern United States. Isolates with virulence to Lr39/41 and avirulence to Lr9 were prevalent in the Great Plains region for the first time. Virulence to Lr21 was present in five virulence phenotypes mostly from the spring wheat region of the northern Great Plains.