Study of Inheritance and Linkage of Virulence Genes in a Selfing Population of a Pakistani Dominant Race of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici

Wheat stripe rust is a severe threat of almost all wheat-growing regions in the world. Being an obligate biotrophic fungus, Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (PST) produces new virulent races that break the resistance of wheat varieties. In this study, 115 progeny isolates were generated through sexual reproduction on susceptible Himalayan Berberis pseudumbellata using a dominant Pakistani race (574232) of PST. The parental isolate and progeny isolates were characterized using 24 wheat Yr single-gene lines and ten simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. From the one-hundred-and-fifteen progeny isolates, 25 virulence phenotypes (VPs) and 60 multilocus genotypes were identified. The parental and all progeny isolates were avirulent to Yr5, Yr10, Yr15, Yr24, Yr32, Yr43, YrSp, YrTr1, YrExp2, Yr26, and YrTye and virulent to Yr1, Yr2, Yr6, Yr7, Yr8, Yr9, Yr17, Yr25, Yr27, Yr28, YrA, Yr44, and Yr3. Based on the avirulence/virulence phenotypes, we found that VPs virulent to Yr1, Yr2, Yr9, Yr17, Yr47, and YrA were controlled by one dominant gene; those to YrSp, YrTr1, and Yr10 by two dominant genes; and those to YrExp2 by two complementary dominant genes. The results are useful in breeding stripe rust-resistant wheat varieties and understanding virulence diversity.