New APR QTL for leaf rust and stripe rust in seven genetic populations

Abstract

Bread wheat lines Francolin #1, Kenya Kongoni, Kundan and Sujata, and CIMMYT derived durum wheat lines Bairds, Dunkler and Quetru display an adequate level of APR to both leaf rust and stripe rust in Mexican field environments. Known pleotropic APR genes Lr46/Yr29 mapped in all of seven RIL populations, and explained 7.4-65.1% and 7.7-66.1% severity variations for LR and YR across different bread wheat populations and accounted for 12.4-60.8% of LR severity variations over three durum wheat populations. In addition, several new APR loci identified on chromosomes 1AS, 1DS, 2BS, 2BL, 3D and 7BL in bread wheat and QTL on chromosome 6BL in durum wheat. Among these loci, QTL on chromosomes 1AS and 7BL might be represent new co-located/pleotropic loci conferring APR to LR and YR. RILs combining these APR loci can be used as sources of complex APR in both bread wheat and durum wheat breeding. In addition, the closely linked single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers have been converted into breederfriendly kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) markers and their diagnostic verified.