Evaluation of Dasypyrum villosum Populations for Resistance to Cereal Eyespot and Stripe Rust Pathogens

Resistance to Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides (cause of eyespot) and Puccinia striiformis(cause of stripe rust) was evaluated in a germ plasm collection of Dasypyrum villosum (syn. Haynaldia villosa) and a set of disomic addition lines, a substitution, and a translocation line of D. villosum chromosomes in a wheat background. Three races of P. striiformis and a β-glucuronidase-transformed strain of Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides were used to inoculate plants and evaluate disease reactions. Of the 115 D. villosum accessions tested, 33 (28.6%) were resistant to one or more races of Puccinia striiformis and 8 accessions were resistant to all races. All 219 accessions of D. villosum tested were resistant to Pseudocercosporella herpotrichoides and 158 (72%) of the accessions had lower β-glucuronidase activity than the resistant wheat line VPM-1. Most of the accessions of D. villosum resistant to the stripe rust pathogen originated from Greece; however, there was no distinction among origins for resistance to the eyespot pathogen. Chromosome 4V was confirmed to carry the gene for resistance to P. herpotrichoides. At least one gene for resistance to Puccinia striiformis was located on the short arm of chromosome 6V of D. villosum in the 6VS/6AL-translocation line; this gene was named Yr26.