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Title: Identification of Berberis spp. as alternate hosts of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in China

Author
item ZHAO, J. - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item ZHANG, H. - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item YAO, J. - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item Chen, Xianming
item KANG, Z. - Washington State University Extension Service

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/30/2011
Publication Date: 6/13/2011
Citation: Zhao, J., Zhang, H.C., Yao, J.N., Chen, X., Kang, Z.S. 2011. Identification of Berberis spp. as alternate hosts of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in China. Meeting Abstract. Page 167 Oral Presentations.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is an important disease on wheat in China because of high virulence diversity. Since the discovery of sexual stage of P. striiformis on Berberis spp., especially B. chinesensis, our interests focused on identifying Berberis species as alternate hosts of the pathogen in China, the largest stripe rust epidemic area in the world. In 2010 some Berberis plants producing aecia were found around wheat fields in three provinces where the occurrence of wheat stripe rust is common. Aecial samples collected from rust-infected Berberis spp. were used for PCR amplification with a Puccinia-specific primer set. A unique band produced by aecial pustules off three Berberis spp. was the same as that produced by telial samples of Pst. Alignment of DNA sequence data showed that the tested aecial samples shared approximately 95% idenitity with the Pst sequence on the NCBI website. Inoculations using germinating teliospores of Pst resulted in a few pycnia and aecia on leaves of five Berberis species.