Wheat leaf and stem rust in the United States
J. A. Kolmer A B , Y. Jin A and D. L. Long AA USDA-ARS, Cereal Disease Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
B Corresponding author. Email: jkolmer@umn.edu
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 58(6) 631-638 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR07057
Submitted: 9 February 2007 Accepted: 4 May 2007 Published: 26 June 2007
Abstract
Leaf rust, caused by Puccinia triticina, is a common and widespread disease of wheat in the US. On an annual basis, over 50 races of the leaf rust fungus are detected. There are at least 5 major groups of genetically distinct P. triticina isolates in the US based on allelic variation at microsatellite loci. Distinct regional race populations of P. triticina are found in the US, due to the widespread use of race-specific leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes in different market classes of wheat. In the south-eastern States where soft red winter wheats are grown, races with virulence to Lr9, Lr11, and Lr18 are predominant. In the southern Great Plains region where hard red winter wheats are grown, races with virulence to genes Lr9, Lr17, Lr24, and Lr26 are common. In the northern Great Plains region where hard red spring wheats are grown, races with virulence to Lr2a and Lr16 are common. Due to the wide dispersal of P. triticina, some races are found in all regions of the US. Highly effective durable resistance to leaf rust has been difficult to achieve due to the high degree of virulence variation in the P. triticina population and the rapid selection of races with virulence to effective Lr genes in wheat cultivars. Hard red spring wheat cultivars with genes Lr16, Lr23, and Lr34 have been highly resistant for more than 10 years in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Stem rust, caused by P. graminis f. sp. tritici, has not been a common disease of wheat in the US since the last major epidemics in the 1950s. The low levels of stem rust infections in the US can be attributed to the increasing use of highly resistant winter and spring wheat cultivars, which has greatly reduced the overall level of stem rust urediniospores. Eradication of the alternate host, Berberis vulgaris, has reduced the number of races and slowed the emergence of new races. Resistance genes Sr2, Sr6, Sr17, Sr24, Sr31, Sr36, and SrTmp are common in the winter wheats. Genes Sr6, Sr9b, Sr11, and Sr17 are common in the spring wheats. Spring wheat cultivars may also have adult plant stem rust resistance derived from cv. Thatcher. Many of the winter and spring wheats are susceptible to the new stem rust race from East Africa; however, cultivars with resistance to this race can be found in each of the major wheat classes.
Additional keywords: race specific resistance, specific virulence, Puccinia triticina, Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici.
Caldwell RM,
Kraybill HR,
Sullivan JT, Compton LE
(1934) Effect of leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) on yield, physical characters, and composition of winter wheats. Journal of Agricultural Research 48, 1049–1071.
Chester KS
(1939) The 1938 wheat leaf-rust epiphytotic in Oklahoma. Plant Disease Reporter 112, 1–19.
Dyck PL
(1987) The association of a gene for leaf rust resistance with the chromosome 7D suppressor of stem rust resistance in common wheat. Genome 29, 467–469.
Dyck PL
(1991) Genetics of adult-plant leaf rust resistance in ‘Chinese Spring’ and ‘Sturdy’ wheats. Crop Science 24, 309–311.
Dyck PL, Johnson R
(1983) Temperature sensitivity of genes for resistance in wheat to Puccinia recondita. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 5, 229–234.
Dyck PL,
Samborski DJ, Anderson RG
(1966) Inheritance of adult-plant leaf rust resistance derived from the common wheat varieties Exchange and Frontana. Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology 8, 665–671.
Ezzahiri B, Roelfs AP
(1989) Inheritance and expression of adult plant resistance to leaf rust in Era wheat. Plant Disease 73, 549–551.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
German SE, Kolmer JA
(1992) Effect of gene Lr34 in the enhancement of resistance to leaf rust of wheat. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 84, 97–105.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Groth JV, Roelfs AP
(1987) The concept and measurement of phenotypic diversity in Puccinia graminis on wheat. Phytopathology 77, 1395–1399.
Jin Y
(2005) Races of Puccinia graminis identified in the United States during 2003. Plant Disease 89, 1121–1124.
| Crossref |
Jin Y, Singh R
(2006) Resistance to recent eastern African stem rust isolates with virulence to Sr31 in US wheat. Plant Disease 90, 476–480.
| Crossref |
Kolmer JA
(1992) Virulence heterozygosity and gametic phase disequilibria in two populations of Puccinia recondita (wheat leaf rust fungus). Heredity 68, 505–513.
Kolmer JA
(2001b) Molecular polymorphism and virulence phenotypes of the wheat leaf rust fungus Puccinia triticina in Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany 79, 917–926.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Kolmer JA
(2003) Postulation of leaf rust resistance genes in selected soft red winter wheats. Crop Science 43, 1266–1274.
Kolmer JA, Dyck PL
(1994) Gene expression in the Triticum aestivum-Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici gene-for-gene system. Phytopathology 84, 437–440.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Kolmer JA,
Dyck PL, Roelfs AP
(1991) An appraisal of stem and leaf rust resistance in North American hard red spring wheats and the probability of multiple mutations in populations of cereal rust fungi. Phytopathology 81, 237–239.
Kolmer JA,
Liu JQ, Sies M
(1995) Virulence and molecular polymorphism in Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici in Canada. Phytopathology 85, 276–285.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Kolmer JA,
Long DL, Hughes ME
(2006) Physiologic specialization of Puccinia triticina on wheat in the United States in 2004. Plant Disease 90, 1219–1224.
| Crossref |
Kolmer JA,
Long DL,
Kosman E, Hughes ME
(2003) Physiologic specialization of Puccinia triticina on wheat in the United States in 2001. Plant Disease 87, 859–866.
| Crossref |
Kolmer JA, Oelke LM
(2006) Genetics of leaf rust resistance in the spring wheats ‘Ivan’ and ‘Knudson’. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 28, 223–229.
Long DL, Kolmer JA
(1989) A North American system of nomenclature for Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici. Phytopathology 79, 525–529.
Long DL,
Leonard KJ, Hughes ME
(2000) Virulence of Puccinia triticina on wheat in the United States from 1996 to 1998. Plant Disease 84, 1334–1341.
| Crossref |
Long DL,
Leonard KJ, Roberts JJ
(1998) Virulence and diversity of wheat leaf rust in the United States in 1993 to 1995. Plant Disease 82, 1391–1400.
| Crossref |
McFadden ES
(1930) A successful transfer of emmer characters to vulgare wheat. Journal of American Society of Agronomy 22, 1020–1034.
McVey DV, Long DL
(1993) Genes for leaf rust resistance in hard red winter wheat cultivars and parental lines. Crop Science 33, 1373–1381.
McVey DV,
Long DL, Roberts JJ
(2002) Races of Puccinia graminis in the United States in 1997 and 1998. Plant Disease 86, 568–572.
| Crossref |
Nazareno NRX, Roelfs AP
(1981) Adult plant resistance of Thatcher wheat to stem rust. Phytopathology 71, 181–185.
Oelke LM, Kolmer JA
(2004) Characterization of leaf rust resistance in hard red spring wheat cultivars. Plant Disease 88, 1127–1133.
| Crossref |
Oelke LM, Kolmer JA
(2005) Genetics of leaf rust resistance in spring wheat cultivars Alsen and Norm. Phytopathology 95, 773–778.
| Crossref |
Ordoñez ME, Kolmer JA
(2007) Virulence phenotypes of a worldwide collection of Puccinia triticina from durum wheat. Phytopathology 97, 344–351.
| Crossref |
Ordoñez ME,
Kolmer JA, Szabo LJ
(2005) Genetic diversity of a world-wide collection of Puccinia triticina from durum wheat using simple sequence repeat markers and rDNA sequence. Phytopathology 95, S78.
Peterson PD,
Leonard KJ,
Miller JD,
Laudon RJ, Sutton TB
(2005) Prevalence and distribution of common barberry, the alternate host of Puccinia graminis, in Minnesota. Plant Disease 89, 159–163.
| Crossref |
Pretorius ZA,
Singh RP,
Wagoire WW, Payne TS
(2000) Detection of virulence to wheat stem rust resistance gene Sr31 in Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in Uganda. Plant Disease 84, 203.
| Crossref |
Roelfs AP
(1989) Epidemiology of the cereal rusts in North America. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 11, 86–90.
Roelfs AP, Martens JW
(1988) An international system of nomenclature for Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. Phytopathology 78, 526–533.
Saari E,
Young HC, Kernkamp MF
(1968) Infection of North American Thalictrum spp. with Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici. Phytopathology 58, 939–943.
Shaner G,
Roberts JJ, Finney RE
(1972) A culture of Puccinia recondita virulent to the wheat cultivar Transfer. Plant Disease 56, 827–830.
Singh RP
(1991) Pathogenicity variations of Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici and P. graminis f. sp. tritici in wheat-growing areas of Mexico during 1988 and 1989. Plant Disease 75, 790–794.
Singh RP,
Huerta-Espino J,
Pfeiffer W, Figueroa-Lopez P
(2004) Occurrence and impact of a new leaf rust race on durum wheat in northwestern Mexico from 2001 to 2003. Plant Disease 88, 703–708.
| Crossref |
Singh RP,
Huerta-Espino J, Rajaram S
(2000) Achieving near-immunity to leaf rust and stripe rust in wheat by combining slow rusting resistance genes. Acta Phytopathology and Entomology 35, 133–139.
Stakman EC
(1947) Plant diseases are shifty enemies. American Scientist 35, 321–350.
Szabo LJ, Kolmer JA
(2007) Development of simple sequence repeat markers for the plant pathogenic fungus Puccinia triticina. Molecular Ecology Notes (In press). (Available online) ,
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
The TT,
Gupta RB,
Dyck PL,
Appels R,
Hohmann U, McIntosh RA
(1992) Characterization of stem rust resistance derivatives of wheat cultivar Amigo. Euphytica 58, 245–252.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Wanyera R,
Kinyua MG,
Jin Y, Singh RP
(2006) The spread of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici with virulence on Sr31 in Eastern Africa. Plant Disease 90, 113.
| Crossref |
