Identification of a Locus for High-Temperature Adult-Plant Resistance to Stripe Rust in the Wheat Yr8 Near-Isogenic Line through Mutagenesis and Molecular Mapping.

Aegilops species are wheat relatives that harbor valuable disease resistance genes for wheat breeding. The wheat Yr8 near-isogenic line, AvSYr8NIL, has long been believed to carry only Yr8 for race-specific all-stage resistance to stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici , derived from Aegilops comosa . However, AvSYr8NIL has been found to have high-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) resistance in our field and greenhouse tests. To confirm both HTAP and Yr8 resistance, seeds from AvSYr8NIL were treated with ethyl methanesulfonate to generate mutant lines. The mutant lines with only Yr8 (M641) and only HTAP resistance (M488) were crossed with the susceptible recurrent parent, Avocet S (AvS). The F1 and F4 lines of AvS/M641 were phenotyped with Yr8 -avirulent races in the seedling stage at the low-temperature (4-20o C) profile, while the F1 , F2 , F4 , and F5 lines of AvS/M488 were phenotyped with Yr8 -virulent races in the adult-plant stage at the high-temperature (10-30o C) profile. Both Yr8 and the HTAP resistance gene ( YrM488 ) were recessive. The F4 populations of AvS/M641 and AvS/M488 were genotyped using polymorphic Kompetitive allele-specific PCR markers converted from SNPs. Yr8 was mapped to a 0.66 cM fragment and YrM488 to a 1.22 cM interval on chromosome 2D. The physical distance between the two resistance genes was estimated to be over 500 Mb, indicating their distinct loci. The mutant lines with separated resistance genes would be useful in enhancing our understanding of different types of resistance and in further studying the interactions between wheat and the stripe rust pathogen.