PMN Proeedings: 2011 Field Crops Rust Symposium

2011 Field Crops Rust Symposium:
Abstract

Poster #26

Screening of Azerbaijani Durum Wheat Accessions to Leaf Rust

Presenting Author: M. ABBASOV (1)

Coauthors: R. Bowden (2), J. Raup (3), S. Sehgal (3), J. Poland (2), S. Babayeva (1), B. Gill (3)

Affiliations: (1) Genetic Resources Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan; (2) USDA-ARS, Manhattan, KS, USA; (3) Plant Pathology Dept., Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

The Azerbaijan Republic is an ancient country located to the southeast of the Caucasus Mountains and to the northwest of the Iranian Plateau, at the crossroads of eastern Europe and southwest Asia. The diverse soil and climatic conditions of Azerbaijan have led to the development of a rich vegetation. The country has more plant genetic diversity than found in the rest of Europe. Vavilov considered Azerbaijan one of the possible centers of origin for wheat, and many ancestral strains of wheat are cultivated there. An important region from the viewpoint of genetic resources for variation for many agronomic traits, we evaluated resistance to leaf rust, which is the major disease of wheat in the Caucasian countries. We screened Azerbaijani durum wheat accessions and varieties, including 64 accessions representing diverse botanical varieties (i.e., 14 Triticum durum var. leucurum, 11 T. durum var. hordeiforme, 2 T. durum var. boeufii, 5 T. durum var. melanopus, 2 T. durum var. murciense, 2 T. durum var. alboprovinciale, 9 T. durum var. leucomelan, 6 T. durum var. apulicum, 2 T. durum var. areichenbachii, 3 T. durum var. erythromelan, 1 T. durum var. affine, 1 T. durum var. niloticum, 2 T. durum var. caerulescens, 2 T. durum var. obscurum, and 1 T. durum var. libucum) from different regions of Azerbaijan and 18 commercial varieties (i.e., Barakatli 95, Jafari, Sevinj, Arandeni, Karakilchik, Sari bugda, Ag bugda, Shirvan bugda, Bozak, Sharg, Mughan, Mirbeshir 50, Karakilchik 2, Vugar, Shiraslan 23, Tartar, Tartar 2, and Kizil bugda), which differed for some morphological traits (e.g., spike, awn, and seed color and hairiness). Four leaf rust isolates were used (i.e., BBBDB, PRTUS25, PRTUS45, and PRTUS60). Eighteen of 82 accessions were resistant to leaf rust, 23 were moderately resistant, and 41 were susceptible. A majority of the resistant accessions (61%) belonged to var. leucurum, i.e., they had white spikes, awns, and seed, and the spikes lacked hair. White spikes were observed in 83.3% of resistant genotypes. Moreover, among the 23 moderately resistant genotypes, 14 (60.9%) also had white spikes. On the contrary, in 70.7% of the 41 wheat genotypes that were rated susceptible, the spike color was red. Our initial hypothesis is that there could be an association between leaf rust resistance and spike color. Therefore, using var. leucurum and/or white spikes may accelerate breeding for leaf rust resistance. Material identified as leaf rust resistant in these experiments will be grouped into germplasm pools and incorporated into our breeding program as potential sources of resistance or tested for yield performance in target environments.