New scientific article - Plant Pathology April 2016

Scientists from Aarhus University and commercial breeders and leading foreign research institutions will in partnership develop new varieties of wheat that are resistant to a number of devastating fungal diseases. The project has been granted 17 million Danish kroner from Innovation Fund Denmark.

An isolate of the basidiomycete Puccinia striiformis, which causes yellow (stripe) rust on wheat, was selfed on the newly discovered alternate host, Berberis vulgaris. This allowed a study of the segregation of molecular markers and virulence in the progeny isolates, and of the development of fungal sexual structures and spore forms.

This collaborative work between Denmark, France and Pakistan describe the worldwide population structure of wheat yellow rust and identifies the centre of diversity of the pathogen in Himalayan and near Himalayan regions.

These results stress the need of maintaining high genetic diversity for disease resistance in wheat and of using pathogen isolates of diverse origin in studies of host resistance genetics.

There is an urgent need for devising new methods of preventing attacks of yellow rust fungus in cereals. A new project tackles the problem from several angles in close cooperation with the agricultural industry.

The Global Wheat Rust Monitoring System (RustTracker) reports about a potential outbreak of yellow rust epidemics in CWANA.

Organic farmers do not have many tools at their disposal against yellow rust in wheat and triticale apart from resistant varieties and good advice. Scientists from Aarhus University are now developing a better toolbox.