Variation in stripe rust resistance and morphological traits in wild emmer wheat populations

Lin Huang, Lihua Feng, Yu He, Zizhong Tang, Jingshu He, Hanan Sela, Tamar Krugman, Tzion Fahima, Dengcai Liu, Bihua Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Wild emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccoides), the tetraploid progenitor of cultivated wheats, is indigenous to the Near East Fertile Crescent. An important center of distribution is found today in and around the catchment area of the upper Jordan Valley in Israel and surrounding regions. In the current study, the field stripe rust resistance and morphological traits were analyzed using 98 sample accessions that represented the geographical distribution of wild emmer populations in Israel and its vicinity. The resistance tests at two field locations revealed that the majority of the wild emmer accessions possess quantitative resistance against stripe rust. This could be due to the high frequency of Yr36 in the wild emmer populations. The identification of potentially novel stripe rust resistance in this set of germplasm is highly significant. In total, 11 morphological traits were examined in this study. Wide range of natural variation was revealed in the tested morphological traits. Most of the morphological traits had significant correlations with climate variables, indicating that the local environmental conditions have a profound effect on shaping the genetic structure of wild emmer wheat. Our results suggest that wild emmer wheat has the enormous potential to improve stripe rust resistance and various important agronomical traits in wheat.

Original languageEnglish
Article number44
JournalAgronomy
Volume9
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.

Keywords

  • Ecogeographical variables
  • Morphology
  • Stripe rust resistance
  • Variation
  • Wild emmer wheat

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Agronomy and Crop Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Variation in stripe rust resistance and morphological traits in wild emmer wheat populations'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this