Emerging yellow rust epidemics in Central and West Asia and Northern Africa (CWANA)

The Global Wheat Rust Monitoring System (RustTracker) reports about a potential outbreak of yellow rust epidemics in CWANA. GRRC was informed by colleagues from CIMMYT and ICARDA about the emerging risks at an early stage in spring 2013. By May 20, GRRC has issued permits for the submission of rust infected wheat samples from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco and Uzbekistan. So far, samples have been recovered from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iraq, and Morocco.

The main purpose of this activity is to characterize recovered rust isolates for virulence phenotype on resistant wheat plants in order to detect potential shifts in pathogen virulence, which may put new wheat varieties at risk. Selected isolates will also be subject to DNA fingerprinting in order to detect the genetic relatedness among isolates from different epidemic sites and to resolve possible mechanisms of evolution. Isolates with interesting new features are stored at GRRC to assist future resistance breeding efforts and research. First results of the virulence phenotyping are expected by the end of June and will be posted on this website, RustTracker and related websites of collaborators.