Seedling resistance of selected Ethiopian bread and durum wheat lines against dominant stem rust races

Stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) is one of the most important diseases of wheat in Ethiopia. It has a reputation to cause yield losses reaching up to 100% on susceptible cultivars. A study was conducted to evaluate the infection responses of 34 bread and 20 durum wheat lines at the seedling stage against four major stem rust races; TKTTF (Digalu race), TTKSK (Ug99 race), TRTTF and JRCQC. Wheat lines were artificially inoculated with urediniospores of the four Pgt races at Ambo Plant Protection Research Center in 2017, under controlled environment. Diverse seedling resistance responses were observed against the tested Pgt races. Three durum wheat lines TD56, TD393 and TD402 showed low infection types against all the races while the great majority (73%) of the tested bread wheat lines was susceptible to at least three of the races. The resistant durum wheat lines identified in this study can be used as sources of resistance in wheat breeding program.