Identification of Powdery Mildew Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici Resistance Genes in Selected Wheat Varieties and Development of Multiplex PCR

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify the Pm2, Pm3a, Pm4b and Pm6 genes and to develop multiplex PCR reaction conditions to reduce time and limit analysis costs. The following molecular markers were used for gene identification: Xcfd81, Whs350 and Xgwm205 (for Pm2), Pm3a (for Pm3a), STS_241 and Xgwm382 (for Pm4b), NAU/BCDSTS 135-2 (for Pm6). Plant material consisted of 7 popular European wheat varieties from the wheat collection at the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding of the Poznań University of Life Sciences. The field experiment was established in 2017 and 2018 on 10 m2 plots in a randomized complete block design in three replicates in the Dłoń Agricultural Experimental Farm of the Poznań University of Life Sciences (51°41’23.835”N 017°4’1.414”E). The analyses demonstrated that the accumulation of all identified Pm genes was found in the Assosan variety. The accumulation of the Pm2, Pm4b and Pm6 genes was found in Atomic, Bussard, Lear, Sparta, Tonacja and Ulka varieties. The work also involved developing multiplex PCR conditions for Xcfd81 and STS_241 and Xcfd81 and Xgwm382 primer pairs, allowing the simultaneous identification of the Pm2 and Pm4b genes.

Keywords

• wheat
• powdery mildew
• ssr molecular markers
• multiplex pcr