Molecular mapping of a stripe rust resistance gene in wheat line C51

Stripe rust, a major disease in areas where cool temperatures prevail, can strongly influence grain yield. To control this disease, breeders have incorporated seedling resistance genes from a variety of sources outside the primary wheat gene pool. The wheat line C51, introduced from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, confers resistance to all races of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (PST) in China. To map the resistant gene(s) against stripe rust in wheat line C51, 212 F8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from the cross X440 x C51 were inoculated with Chinese PST race CYR33 (Chinese yellow rust, CYR) in the greenhouse. The result showed that C51 carried a single dominant gene for resistance (designated YrC51) to CYR33. Simple sequence repeat (SSR) and resistance gene-analogue polymorphism (RGAP) markers that were polymorphic between the parents were used for genotyping the 212 F8 RILs. YrC51 was closely linked to two SSR loci on chromosome 2BS with genetic distances of 5.1 cM (Xgwm429) and 7.2 cM (Xwmc770), and to three RGAP markers C51R1 (XLRR For / NLRR For), C51R2 (CLRR Rev / Cre3LR-F) and C51R3 (Pto kin4 / NLRRINV2) with genetic distances of 5.6, 1.6 and 9.2 cM, respectively. These RGAP-linked markers were then converted into STS markers.Among them, one STS marker, C51STS-4, was located at a genetic distance of 1.4 cM to YrC51 and was closely associated with resistance when validated in several populations derived from crosses between C51 and Sichuan cultivars. The results indicated that C51STS-4 can be used for marker assisted selection (MAS) and would facilitate the pyramiding of YrC51 with other genes for stripe rust resistance.