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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Cereal Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #400324
Research Project: Improvement of Biotic Stress Resistance in Durum and Hard Red Spring Wheat Using Genetics and Genomics

Location: Cereal Crops Research

Title: Exploration and genetic analysis of stress tolerance in underutilize wheat wild relative Aegilops umbellulata

Author
item SINGH, JATINDER - North Dakota State University
item Gupta, Rajeev
item LIU, ZHAOHUI - North Dakota State University
item SEHGAL, SUNISH - South Dakota State University
item ACEVEDO, MARICELIS - Cornell University
item GILL, UPINDER - North Dakota State University

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/12/2023
Publication Date: 1/12/2023
Citation: Singh, J., Gupta, R., Liu, Z., Sehgal, S., Acevedo, M., Gill, U. 2023. Exploration and genetic analysis of stress tolerance in underutilize wheat wild relative Aegilops umbellulata [abstract]. Plant and Animal Genome Conference. PE0570.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Wheat is an important cereal crop growing over 17% of the world’s cultivated land. The narrow genetic base of cultivated hexaploid wheat is one of the critical constraining factors that makes it prone to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses, potentially escalating global food insecurity. Globally, biotic factors cause approximately 21.5% yield losses in wheat annually. Moreover, climate change indubitably modifies the interaction between host and pathogen, resulting in the emergence of novel and more adaptive pathogen isolates. Wild wheat relatives play a crucial role in improving wheat genetic diversity by providing a plethora of useful stress resilience traits. The current project aims at exploring novel genetic variations in Aegilops umbellulata for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance to broaden the genetic base of cultivated wheat. A small subset of Ae. umbellulata panel was screened for three wheat rusts (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, P. triticina, and P. striiformis f. sp. tritici), tan spot (Pyrenophora tritici-repentis), and bacterial leaf streak (Xanthomonas translucens pv. undulosa). Phenotyping of Ae. umbellulata accessions with a mixture of four different leaf rust races showed 70% moderately to highly resistant accessions. Similarly, screening with two stem rust races and one stripe rust race identified 55-82% and 39% resistant accessions, respectively. Further, accessions with Tan spot resistance (42%) and bacterial leaf streak resistance (2%) were also identified. These accessions can be used to introgress novel disease resistance traits into cultivated wheat. The recent results of the phenotypic characterization of Ae. umbellulata will be presented.