Characterization of Stripe Rust Resistance in Wheat Lines with Resistance Gene Yr17 and Implications for Evaluating Resistance and Virulence

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, has been the most important foliar wheat disease in south central United States since 2000 when a new strain of the pathogen emerged. The resistance gene Yr17 was used by many breeding programs to develop resistant cultivars. Although Yr17 was classified as a seedling (all-stage) resistance gene conferring a low infection type, seedlings with Yr17 frequently had intermediate to high infection types when inoculated with isolates that caused little or no disease on adult plants of the same wheat lines. The objectives of this study were to determine how to best evaluate Yr17 resistance in wheat lines and to determine which factors made seedling tests involving Yr17 so variable. Stripe rust reactions on wheat seedlings with Yr17 were influenced by temperature, wheat genotype, pathogen isolate, and the leaf (first or second) used to assess the seedling reaction. The most critical factors for accurately evaluating Yr17 reactions at the seedling stage were to avoid night temperatures below 12 degrees C, to use the first leaf to assess the seedling reaction, to use multiple differentials with Yr17 and known avirulent, partially virulent and virulent isolates as controls, and to recognize that intermediate infection types likely represent a level of partial virulence in the pathogen that is insufficient to cause disease on adult plants in the field.