Narayana M Upadhyaya, Rohit Mago, Vinay Panwar, Tim Hewitt, Ming Luo, Jian Chen, Jana Sperschneider, Hoa Nguyen-Phuc, Aihua Wang, Diana Ortiz, Luch Hac, Dhara Bhatt, Feng Li, Jianping Zhang, Michael Ayliffe, Melania Figueroa, Kostya Kanyuka, Jeffrey G Ellis, Peter N Dodds
Stem rust caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) is a devastating disease of the global staple crop wheat. Although this disease was largely controlled in the latter half of the twentieth century, new virulent strains of Pgt, such as Ug99, have recently evolved1,2 . These strains have caused notable losses worldwide and their continued spread threatens global wheat production. Breeding for disease resistance provides the most cost-effective control of wheat rust diseases3 . A number of rust resistance genes have been characterized in wheat and most encode immune receptors of the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) class4 , which recognize pathogen effector proteins known as avirulence (Avr) proteins5 ...
July 22, 2021: Nature Plants