Disease and insect resistance in cultivated barley accessions from the USDA national small grains collection

Cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare L.) accessions from the USDA-ARS National Small Grains Collection (NSGC) have been tested systematically for the past 20 yr for disease and insect resistance. In this study, we analyzed the resistance to barley yellow dwarf (BYD), spot blotch (SB) caused by Cochliobolus sativus (Ito and Kuribayashi) Drechs. ex Dastur, net blotch (NB) caused by Pyrenophora teres f. teres Drechs., stripe rust (SR) caused by Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. hordei, and Russian wheat aphid (RWA), Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko), with respect to (i) geographic origin of resistant accessions, (ii) relationship to other NSGC descriptor data, and (iii) relationships among resistances. "Centers of concentration" for certain resistances were identified: eastern Africa for several diseases, western Turkey and the Caucasus for SR resistance, eastern Asia for adult plant resistance to NB, and south-central Asia for RWA resistance. Stripe rust resistance was also associated with accessions originating from high altitude in eastern Africa (Ethiopia). Various associations between resistances and grain descriptors, plant habit, and landrace status were also found. Forty-eight accessions showed multiple resistances on the basis of the field disease data and the RWA greenhouse data. Many of these resistant accessions were from Ethiopia, and many were of unknown origin. Stripe rust testing in California and Bolivia supported the conclusion that winter-habit accessions were more resistant to the disease than were spring-habit accessions. Information from this study will be used to guide future NSGC acquisition and evaluation efforts.