Evolution of new disease specificity at a simple resistance locus in a crop-weed complex: reconstitution of the Lr21 gene in wheat.

ABSTRACT: The wheat leaf-rust resistance gene Lr21 was first identified in an Iranian accession of goatgrass, Aegilops tauschii Coss., the D-genome donor of hexaploid bread wheat, and was introgressed into modern wheat cultivars by breeding. To elucidate the origin of the gene, we analyzed sequences of Lr21 and lr21 alleles from 24 wheat cultivars and 25 accessions of Ae. tauschii collected along the Caspian Sea in Iran and Azerbaijan. Three basic nonfunctional lr21 haplotypes, H1, H2, and H3, were identified. Lr21 was found to be a chimera of H1 and H2, which were found only in wheat. We attempted to reconstitute a functional Lr21 allele by crossing the cultivars Fielder (H1) and Wichita (H2). Rust inoculation of 5876 F(2) progeny revealed a single resistant plant that proved to carry the H1H2 hapl

SUBMITTER: Huang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2691766 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature