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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #241558

Title: Prospects for advancing defense to cereal rusts through genetical genomics

Author
item Lauter, Nicholas
item Wise, Roger

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2013
Publication Date: 5/1/2013
Citation: Ballini, E., Lauter, N.C., Wise, R.P. 2013. Prospects for advancing defense to cereal rusts through genetical genomics. Frontiers in Plant Science. 4:117.

Interpretive Summary: Rusts are one of the most severe threats to cereal crops because new pathogen races emerge regularly, resulting in infestations that lead to large yield losses. In 1999, a new race of stem rust, Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt TTKSK or Ug99), was discovered in Uganda. Most of the wheat and barley cultivars grown currently worldwide are susceptible to this new race. Pgt TTKSK has already spread northward into Iran and will likely spread eastward throughout the Indian subcontinent in the near future. This scenario is not unique to stem rust; new races of leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis) have also emerged recently. One strategy for countering the persistent adaptability of these pathogens is to stack complete- and partial-resistance genes, which requires significant breeding efforts in order to reduce deleterious effects of linkage drag. These varied resistance combinations are typically more difficult for the pathogen to defeat, since they would be predicted to apply lower selection pressure. Genetical genomics or expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) analysis enables the identification of regulatory loci that control the expression of many to hundreds of genes. Integrated deployment of these technologies coupled with efficient phenotyping offers significant potential to elucidate the regulatory nodes in genetic networks that orchestrate host defense responses. The focus of this review will be to present advances in genetical genomic experimental designs and analysis, particularly as they apply to the prospects for discovering partial disease resistance alleles in cereals.

Technical Abstract: Rusts are one of the most severe threats for cereals because new races emerge regularly, typically resulting in infestations that lead to large yield losses. In 1999, a new race of stem rust, Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt TTKS or Ug99), was discovered in Uganda. Most of the wheat and barley cultivars grown currently worldwide are susceptible to this new race. Pgt TTKS has already spread northward into Iran and will likely spread eastward throughout the Indian subcontinent in the near future. This scenario is not unique to stem rust; new races of leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis) have also emerged recently. One strategy for countering the persistent adaptability of these pathogens is to stack complete- and partial-resistance genes, which requires significant breeding efforts in order to reduce deleterious effects of linkage drag. These varied resistance combinations are typically more difficult for the pathogen to defeat, since they would be predicted to apply lower selection pressure. Recent technological developments allow the fusion of quantitative genetic and molecular methods, often called genetical genomics, to efficiently identify regulatory loci that control the expression of many to hundreds of genes. Integrated deployment of these technologies coupled with efficient phenotyping offers significant potential to elucidate the regulatory nodes in genetic networks that orchestrate host defense responses. The focus of this mini-review will be to present advances in genetical genomic experimental designs and analysis techniques, particularly as they apply to the prospects for discovering partial disease resistance alleles in cereal crops.