Mining the Vavilov wheat diversity panel for new sources of adult plant resistance to stripe rust

Multi-year evaluation of the Vavilov wheat diversity panel identified new sources of adult plant resistance to stripe rust. Genome-wide association studies revealed the key genomic regions influencing resistance, including seven novel loci. Wheat stripe rust (YR) caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) poses a significant threat to global food security. Resistance genes commonly found in many wheat varieties have been rendered ineffective due to the rapid evolution of the pathogen. To identify novel sources of adult plant resistance (APR), 292 accessions from the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, Saint Petersburg, Russia, were screened for known APR genes (i.e. Yr18, Yr29, Yr46, Yr33, Yr39 and Yr59) using linked polymerase chain reaction (PCR) molecular markers. Accessions were evaluated against Pst (pathotype 134 E16 A + Yr17 + Yr27) at seedling and adult plant stages across multiple years (2014, 2015 and 2016) in Australia. Phenotypic analyses identified 132 lines that potentially carry novel sources of APR to YR. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified 68 significant marker-trait associations (P < 0.001) for YR resistance, representing 47 independent quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions. Fourteen genomic regions overlapped with previously reported Yr genes, including Yr29, Yr56, Yr5, Yr43, Yr57, Yr30, Yr46, Yr47, Yr35, Yr36, Yrxy1, Yr59, Yr52 and YrYL. In total, seven QTL (positioned on chromosomes 1D, 2A, 3A, 3D, 5D, 7B and 7D) did not collocate with previously reported genes or QTL, indicating the presence of promising novel resistance factors. Overall, the Vavilov diversity panel provides a rich source of new alleles which could be used to broaden the genetic bases of YR resistance in modern wheat varieties.