World Grain - April 2014 - 104

FEATURE: Wheat rust concerns

Yellow rust races are often named after a variety on which it is virulent,
for example Warrior or Solstice. These
are characterized by virulence for the
differential variety Spaldings Prolific,
though not all of the variants are virulent on Warrior itself.
"You all know why we study yellow
rust," said Dr. Diane Saunders of the
Sainsbury Laboratory. "It significantly
reduces grain quality and yield in susceptible cultivars."
Over the last five years Britain has
seen the emergence of a succession of
isolates that have overcome key wheat
varieties. She noted that the resistance
in wheat varieties was based on a "very
narrow genetic range."
"In 2013, up to 75% of the U.K.
wheat acreage was susceptible to the
newly emergent race Warrior," she said.
"Despite the success of the UKCPVS
and our understanding of the phenotypic

diversity of wheat yellow rust, we know
almost nothing about its genetic diversity in the U.K."
Dr. Saunders' research is looking
again at samples collected in the survey over a number of years. Her team
is investigating the genetic sequence
of yellow rust to draw a genetic "family tree" to see how the different races
are related to each other. The results
seem to show a lot of difference between "Warrior types" and other races
of yellow rust in the U.K., raising the
possibility that the "Warrior type"
may have been brought into the U.K.
rather than evolving from a race already present.
Britain's mild wet winter means that
2014 is likely to be what researchers call
"a good year" for yellow rust.
"We have a bit of a yellow rust bonanza," Professor James Brown of the John
Innes Centre told journalists before the

meeting. "It's been such a mild winter.
Yellow rust will surely take off."
He noted concern that what have become known as the Warrior type races,
which can beat the resistance bred into
certain wheat varieties, would take off in
Europe. "The take-home message is that
they are from outside the U.K.," he said.
"Over the last 12 years there have been
three or four epidemics of yellow rust
worldwide. It has become a problem in
places where it didn't exist before."
New types of rust were coming from
the Himalaya region where it's changing fast.
"The pathogen has a sexual stage," he
said. "It can keep developing new genotypes. What we have been used to over
the last 100 years is step-wise changes.
What we're now seeing is worldwide
dispersal of every disease and waves of
yellow rust."
He considered the reasons. "Greatly

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World Grain - April 2014

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