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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Cereal Disease Lab » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #204299
Title: INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF NOMENCLATURE FOR PUCCINIA GRAMINIS F. SP. AVENAE

Author
item FETCH, TOM - AG AND AGRI-FOOD CANADA
item Jin, Yue

Submitted to: Plant Disease
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/2007
Publication Date: 6/15/2007
Citation: Fetch, T.G., Jin, Y. 2007. International system of nomenclature for Puccinia graminis f. sp. avenae. Plant Disease. 91:763-766.

Interpretive Summary: Stem rust is an important disease of oats. The population of stem rust consists of various strains (races) which is characterized by virulence/avirulence on a set of resistance genes. The current systems that describe the virulence phenotype in Puccinia graminis f. sp. avenae have no systematic approach in the naming of races or in fully characterizing their virulence. We proposed a new nomenclature system that simply and fully characterizes virulence in P. graminis f. sp. avenae. The new system has the distinct advantage in providing easily-seen relationships among races in comparison to previous nomenclature systems. This allows for easier interpretation of relationships among races. Each race is designated by a three-letter code, based on the seedling reaction (low or high) on differential lines. The proposed nomenclature system is open-ended and can be easily updated as new differential genes are identified. This system simply and precisely describes the virulence phenotypes of isolates of P. graminis f. sp. avenae, and allows for easily-made comparisons of virulence of isolates collected over time and across geographical locations worldwide, and for monitoring effectiveness of individual resistance genes.

Technical Abstract: Current systems that describe the virulence phenotype in Puccinia graminis f. sp. avenae have no systematic approach in the naming of races or in fully characterizing their virulence. A new nomenclature system that simply and fully characterizes virulence in P. graminis f. sp. avenae is proposed. The new system has the distinct advantage in providing easily-seen relationships among races in comparison to previous nomenclature systems. This allows for easier interpretation of virulence relationships in the oat stem rust population and provides much virulence information with a minimum of written characters. This system uses single-gene differential lines with the resistance genes Pg1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, and 16, grouped into three subsets in sequential Pg gene order. Each race is designated by a three-letter code, based on the seedling reaction (low or high) on differential lines. The proposed nomenclature system is open-ended and can be easily updated as new differential genes are identified. This system simply and precisely describes the virulence phenotypes of isolates of P. graminis f. sp. avenae, and allows for easily-made comparisons of virulence of isolates collected over time and across geographical locations worldwide.