Mutations in wheat leading to enhanced resistance to the fungal pathogen of yellow rust

Abstract

The isolation and study of plant resistance genes is revealing a story more complicated than the gene-for-gene hypothesis originally implied. The story of resistance is complicated even further by the discovery of genes that appear to have a negative effect on resistance. Early studies in the wheat line Hobbit 'sib' identified a number of chromosomes that reduced the level of field resistance to the fungal pathogen Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici, the causal agent of yellow rust on wheat. From a series of deletion mutants generated in Hobbit 'sib' a number of mutant lines were selected that gave enhanced resistance to yellow rust. The phenotypic, genetic and molecular characterisation of some of these mutants is presented.

Keywords

• mutants
• wheat
• yellow rust