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Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security

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A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 31182

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Davinder Singh

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Guest Editor

Plant Breeding Institute, Faculty of Science, School of Life & Environmental Science, The University of Sydney, Cobbitty, NSW 2570, Australia
Interests: plant genetics and breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

World food security will remain a challenge in future as the human population continues to grow and is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2,030. Among various strategies to tackle food security, increased food production of major cereals stay as one of the main priorities for a vast majority of national governments and international organizations. Rust diseases have been ongoing problems for production of major cereals (wheat, barley, oats, rye and triticale) and can cause significant yield and quality losses. The rust pathogens also pose serious biosecurity risks because they are air-borne, and can spread rapidly over long distances and adapt quickly.

Over last hundred years, extensive progress made in the disciplines of rust taxonomy, pathology, genetics, molecular biology and plant breeding has helped partially in developing eco-friendly and sustainable rust control strategies. With the advances in genome sequencing, host pathogen molecular interactions, better understanding of non-host resistance, cytogenetic manipulations and gene cloning, there lies an enormous potential in developing new technologies and tools for cereal improvement, and mitigating risks posed by the rust diseases.

This special issue of Agronomy Journal will feature on ‘Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security’. We invite experts and researchers to contribute original research, reviews and opinion pieces covering all related topics including rust surveillance, race analysis and monitoring systems, host pathogen interactions, resistance gene mapping and cloning, sources of resistance, gene discovery, breeding for resistance and international collaboration and networks to manage cereal rusts.

Dr. Davinder Singh
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Food security
Cereal rusts
Management of rusts
Breeding for rust resistance
Rust surveillance
Host pathogen interactions
Characterization of rust resistance

Published Papers (7 papers)

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17 pages, 3211 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genomic Prediction of Rust Resistance in Tetraploid Wheat under Field and Controlled Environment Conditions

by Shiva Azizinia, Harbans Bariana, James Kolmer, Raj Pasam, Sridhar Bhavani, Mumta Chhetri, Arvinder Toor, Hanif Miah, Matthew J. Hayden, Dunia Pino del Carpio, Urmil Bansal and Hans D. Daetwyler

Agronomy 2020, 10(11), 1843; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10111843 - 23 Nov 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2999

Abstract

Genomic selection can increase the rate of genetic gain in crops through accumulation of positive alleles and reduce phenotyping costs by shortening the breeding cycle time. We performed genomic prediction for resistance to wheat rusts in tetraploid wheat accessions using three cross-validation with the objective of predicting: (1) rust resistance when individuals are not tested in all environments/locations, (2) the performance of lines across years, and (3) adult plant resistance (APR) of lines with bivariate models. The rationale for the latter is that seedling assays are faster and could increase prediction accuracy for APR. Predictions were derived from adult plant and seedling responses for leaf rust (Lr), stem rust (Sr) and stripe rust (Yr) in a panel of 391 accessions grown across multiple years and locations and genotyped using 16,483 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Different Bayesian models and genomic best linear unbiased prediction yielded similar accuracies for all traits. Site and year prediction accuracies for Lr and Yr ranged between 0.56–0.71 for Lr and 0.51–0.56 for Yr. While prediction accuracy for Sr was variable across different sites, accuracies for Yr were similar across different years and sites. The changes in accuracies can reflect higher genotype × environment (G × E) interactions due to climate or pathogenic variation. The use of seedling assays in genomic prediction was underscored by significant positive genetic correlations between all stage resistance (ASR) and APR (Lr: 0.45, Sr: 0.65, Yr: 0.50). Incorporating seedling phenotypes in the bivariate genomic approach increased prediction accuracy for all three rust diseases. Our work suggests that the underlying plant-host response to pathogens in the field and greenhouse screens is genetically correlated, but likely highly polygenic and therefore difficult to detect at the individual gene level. Overall, genomic prediction accuracies were in the range suitable for selection in early generations of the breeding cycle. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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21 pages, 4686 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Analysis of the Genetic Diversity of Bread Wheat x Spelt Breeding Lines in Terms of Their Resistance to Powdery Mildew and Leaf Rust

by Klaudia Goriewa-Duba, Adrian Duba, Elżbieta Suchowilska and Marian Wiwart

Agronomy 2020, 10(5), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10050658 - 07 May 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2315

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity of breeding lines derived from bread wheat and spelt (bread wheat cvs. Zebra, Torka and Kontesa; spelt breeding lines S10–S14) in terms of their resistance to infections caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici and Puccinia triticina Eriks. The genomes of all analyzed lines harbored the markers for Pm2a, Pm4b and Pm6a alleles, which confer resistance to the infection caused by B. graminis f. sp. tritici. The markers for Pm4c and Pm4a alleles were also identified in many objects. The high number of Pm markers was noted in the crosses Zebra × S11 and Zebra × S12 whose genomes harbored the markers for Pm2a, Pm3d, Pm4a-4c and Pm6. Most of the studied lines harbored the marker linked to the Lr10 gene, which encodes resistance to the infection caused by P. triticina in wheat. The analysis of the presence of markers linked to the resistance to infections caused by B. graminis f. sp. tritici and P. triticina demonstrated that Zebra × S12 was the most promising breeding line with the highest number of markers for genes/alleles encoding resistance to powdery mildew and leaf rust. This breeding line was also highly resistant to both pathogens under field conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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18 pages, 2513 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Weather-Based Predictive Modeling of Wheat Stripe Rust Infection in Morocco

by Moussa El Jarroudi, Rachid Lahlali, Louis Kouadio, Antoine Denis, Alexandre Belleflamme, Mustapha El Jarroudi, Mohammed Boulif, Hamid Mahyou and Bernard Tychon

Agronomy 2020, 10(2), 280; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10020280 - 15 Feb 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5380

Abstract

Predicting infections by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, with sufficient lead times, helps determine whether fungicide sprays should be applied in order to prevent the risk of wheat stripe rust (WSR) epidemics that might otherwise lead to yield loss. Despite the increasing threat of WSR to wheat production in Morocco, a model for predicting WSR infection events has yet to be developed. In this study, data collected during two consecutive cropping seasons in 2018–2019 in bread and durum wheat fields at nine representative sites (98 and 99 fields in 2018 and 2019, respectively) were used to develop a weather-based model for predicting infections by P. striiformis. Varying levels of WSR incidence and severity were observed according to the site, year, and wheat species. A combined effect of relative humidity > 90%, rainfall ≤ 0.1 mm, and temperature ranging from 8 to 16 °C for a minimum of 4 continuous hours (with the week having these conditions for 5% to 10% of the time) during March–May were optimum to the development of WSR epidemics. Using the weather-based model, WSR infections were satisfactorily predicted, with probabilities of detection ≥ 0.92, critical success index ranging from 0.68 to 0.87, and false alarm ratio ranging from 0.10 to 0.32. Our findings could serve as a basis for developing a decision support tool for guiding on-farm WSR disease management, which could help ensure a sustainable and environmentally friendly wheat production in Morocco. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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13 pages, 235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Pathotype Testing of Selected Kenyan Wheat Germplasm and Watkin Landraces for Resistance to Wheat Stripe Rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp tritici) Races

by Mercy N. Wamalwa, James Owuoche, Joshua Ogendo and Ruth Wanyera

Agronomy 2019, 9(11), 770; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9110770 - 18 Nov 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2945

Abstract

Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the key diseases of economic importance in wheat worldwide. Host resistance, which follows the gene-for-gene hypothesis between the host and pathogen, has been used in wheat lines to resolve resistance specificities and postulate resistant genes. The objective of this study was to elucidate stripe rust resistance in a collection of Kenyan wheat lines and Watkin landraces to identify new sources of stripe rust (Yr) resistance. In this study, the resistance in twenty wheat lines was determined by comparing their infection type with those of twenty differential lines using isolates representing twelve Puccinia striiformis races from Kenya, Denmark, U.K., Sweden, and Eritrea at the seedling stage. Among the twenty wheat lines, none was resistant to all the twelve Pst races and isolate DK02d/12 (“Kranich” race) was virulent on all the genotypes except wheat genotype “Kenya Tai.” This genotype (“Kenya Tai”) had the highest resistance as it was resistant to all the twelve stripe rust races used in this study. From this study, the introduction and utilization of wheat genotypes with adult plant resistant (APR) stripe rust genes, such as Yr15, are important in breeding wheat genotypes with effective resistance to wheat stripe rust in Kenya and worldwide. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

10 pages, 477 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Marker Assisted Transfer of Stripe Rust and Stem Rust Resistance Genes into Four Wheat Cultivars

by Mandeep S. Randhawa, Navtej S. Bains, Virinder S. Sohu, Parveen Chhuneja, Richard M. Trethowan, Harbans S. Bariana and Urmil Bansal

Agronomy 2019, 9(9), 497; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9090497 - 30 Aug 2019

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4738

Abstract

Three rust diseases namely; stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina (Pt), and stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), are the most common fungal diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and cause significant yield losses worldwide including Australia. Recently characterized stripe rust resistance genes Yr51 and Yr57 are effective against pre- and post-2002 Pst pathotypes in Australia. Similarly, stem rust resistance genes Sr22, Sr26, and Sr50 are effective against the Pgt pathotype TTKSK (Ug99) and its derivatives in addition to commercially important Australian pathotypes. Effectiveness of these genes make them good candidates for combining with known pleiotropic adult plant resistance (PAPR) genes to achieve durable resistance against three rust pathogens. This study was planned to transfer rust resistance genes Yr51, Yr57, Sr22, Sr26, and Sr50 into two Australian (Gladius and Livingston) and two Indian (PBW550 and DBW17) wheat cultivars through marker assisted selection (MAS). These cultivars also carry other rust resistance genes: Gladius carries Lr37/Yr17/Sr38 and Sr24/Lr24; Livingston carries Lr34/Yr18/Sr57, Lr37/Yr17/Sr38, and Sr2; PBW550 and DBW17 carry Lr34/Yr18/Sr57 and Lr26/Yr9/Sr31. Donor sources of Yr51 (AUS91456), Yr57 (AUS91463), Sr22 (Sr22/3*K441), Sr26 (Sr26 WA1), and Sr50 (Dra-1/Chinese Spring ph1b/2/3* Gabo) were crossed with each of the recurrent parents to produce backcross progenies. Markers linked to Yr51 (sun104), Yr57 (gwm389 and BS00062676), Sr22 (cssu22), Sr26 (Sr26#43), and Sr50 (Sr50-5p-F3, R2) were used for their MAS and markers csLV34 (Lr34/Yr18/Sr57), VENTRIUP-LN2 (Lr37/Yr17/Sr38), Sr24#12 (Sr24/Lr24), and csSr2 (Sr2) were used to select genes present in recurrent parents. Progenies of selected individuals were grown and selected under field conditions for plant type and adult plant rust responses. Final selections were genotyped with the relevant markers. Backcross derivatives of these genes were distributed to breeding companies for use as resistance donors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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13 pages, 1308 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Individual and Combined Effects of QTL for Adult Plant Stripe Rust Resistance Derived from Cappelle-Desprez

by Gerrie J Maree, Renée Prins, Lesley A Boyd, Howard D Castelyn, Cornelia M Bender, Willem HP Boshoff and Zacharias A Pretorius

Agronomy 2019, 9(3), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9030154 - 25 Mar 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2943

Abstract

The release of commercial wheat cultivars resistant to stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), remains one of the primary objectives in many breeding programs. Previous studies of adult plant resistance derived from the winter wheat cultivar Cappelle-Desprez identified the quantitative trait loci (QTL) QYr.ufs-2A, QYr.ufs-2D, QYr.ufs-5B and QYr.ufs-6D to affect stripe rust under South African conditions. Phenotypic field assessment, fluorescence microscopy and molecular analysis were used to characterise recombinant inbred lines differing in number and combinations of these QTL. Besides the confirmation of enhanced resistance through co-occurring resistance loci, varying levels of defence, conditioned by different QTL combinations were observed. Carriers of QYr.ufs-2A or QYr.ufs-2D, accompanied by at least one other QTL, exhibited higher resistance levels than lines with a single QTL. The knowledge gained in this study will help wheat breeders to develop cultivars with more diverse combinations and potentially more durable sources of stripe rust resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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14 pages, 616 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Status of Wheat Rust Research and Progress in Rust Management-Indian Context

by Subhash C. Bhardwaj, Gyanendra P. Singh, Om P. Gangwar, Pramod Prasad and Subodh Kumar

Agronomy 2019, 9(12), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9120892 - 16 Dec 2019

Cited by 69 | Viewed by 9167

Abstract

The rusts of wheat, caused by three species of Puccinia, are very devastating diseases and are major biotic constraints in efforts to sustain wheat production worldwide. Their capacity to spread aerially over long distances, rapid production of infectious uredospores, and abilities to evolve new pathotypes, makes the management of wheat pathogens a very challenging task. The development and deployment of resistant wheat varieties has proven to be the most economic, effective and efficient means of managing rust diseases. Rust resistance used in wheat improvement has included sources from the primary gene pool as well as from species distantly related to wheat. The 1BL/1RS translocation from cereal rye was used widely in wheat breeding, and for some time provided resistance to the wheat leaf rust, stripe rust, and stem rust pathogens conferred by genes Lr26, Yr9, and Sr31, respectively. However, the emergence of virulence for all three genes, and stripe rust resistance gene Yr27, has posed major threats to the cultivation of wheat globally. To overcome this threat, efforts are going on worldwide to monitor rust diseases, identify rust pathotypes, and to evaluate wheat germplasm for rust resistance. Anticipatory breeding and the responsible deployment of rust resistant cultivars have proven to be effective strategies to manage wheat rusts. Efforts are still however being made to decipher the recurrence of wheat rusts, their epidemiologies, and new genomic approaches are being used to break the yield barriers and manage biotic stresses such as the rusts. Efficient monitoring of pathotypes of Puccinia species on wheat, identification of resistance sources, pre-emptive breeding, and strategic deployment of rust resistant wheat cultivars have been the key factors to effective management of wheat rusts in India. The success in containing wheat rusts in India can be gauged by the fact that we had no wheat rust epiphytotic for nearly last five decades. This publication provides a comprehensive overview of the wheat rust research conducted in India. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cereal Rust Management for Improving Global Food Security)

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