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ARS Home » Plains Area » El Reno, Oklahoma » Oklahoma and Central Plains Agricultural Research Center » Peanut and Small Grains Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #429207
Research Project: Genetic Improvement for Resistance to Aphids and Major Diseases in Wheat, Barley, and Sorghum in the Great Plains

Location: Peanut and Small Grains Research Unit

Title: Molecular mapping of quantitative trait loci for stripe rust resistance in the wheat landrace PI 622129

Author
item Xu, Xiangyang
item Li, Genqiao
item WATIRA, TEZERA - Oklahoma State University
item WANG, MEINAN - Washington State University
item Bai, Guihua
item Chen, Xianming
item Bernardo, Amy
item BIAN, RUOLIN - Kansas State University
item CARVER, BRETT - Oklahoma State University
item WU, YANQI - Oklahoma State University

Submitted to: Phytopathology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/23/2025
Publication Date: 3/23/2026
Citation: Xu, X., Li, G., Watira, T.W., Wang, M., Bai, G., Chen, X., Bernardo, A.E., Bian, R., Carver, B.F., Wu, Y. 2026. Molecular mapping of quantitative trait loci for stripe rust resistance in the wheat landrace PI 622129. Phytopathology. 116(5):719-727. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-09-25-0314-R.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-09-25-0314-R

Interpretive Summary: Wheat stripe rust, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is among the top crop diseases incurring huge economic losses worldwide, and stripe rust epidemics occur frequently (2-3 years of every 5 years) and cause huge economic losses in the USA. Controlling stripe rust is challenging because the Pst urediniospores can be spread over thousands of kilometers by wind and the pathogen has a wide range of grass hosts that cannot be completely eradicated. Therefore, identification of new stripe rust resistance sources that can be easily used in wheat cultivar development is essential for food security. The Iranian landrace PI 622119 exhibits high resistance to the predominant U.S. Pst races, and genetic analysis revealed four stripe rust resistance loci on chromosome arms 2DS, 5BS, 2AL, and 7BL. Of these, the resistance locus on 2DS, designated QYr.stars-2DS, is a novel locus that played a major role in protecting plants from stripe rust. User-friendly, high throughput molecular markers closely linked to each resistance locus have been developed to facilitate their use in cultivar development.

Technical Abstract: Wheat stripe rust, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is among the top crop diseases incurring huge economic losses worldwide, and identification of new stripe rust resistance sources that can be easily used in wheat cultivar development is essential for food security. The Iranian landrace PI 622119 exhibits high resistance to the predominant U.S. Pst races, and an F7 recombinant inbred line (RIL) population from the cross PI 622129 × Stardust was genotyped using SNPs generated by genotyping-by-sequencing. The RIL population was evaluated for responses to the Pst race PSTv-37 at the seedling stage in three environments, and quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis revealed four QTLs for stripe rust resistance on chromosome arms 2DS, 5BS, 2AL, and 7BL. Of these, QYr.stars-2DS and QYr.stars-5BS are major QTLs explaining 21-38% and 11.6-27.2% of the total phenotypic variance, respectively, in three experiments. QYr-Stars-2DS, identified in the interval 2.58-5.54 Mb on chromosome arm 2DS of the Chinese Spring IWGSC RefSeq v2.1 reference genome, is likely a new stripe rust resistance locus. QYr.stars-5BS was delimited to an interval (8.1 – 9.0 Mb) close to Yr47, whereas QYr.stars-2AL and QYr.stars-7BL were mapped to the terminal and QTL-rich regions of chromosome arms 2AL (750.8 – 752.5 Mb) and 7BL (718.1 – 721.2 Mb), respectively. KASP markers were developed to facilitate the rapid introgression of these QTLs into locally adapted lines via marker-assisted selection.