Evaluation of barley landraces for resistance to leaf rust disease (Puccinia hordei)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Research Assistant Professor, Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

2 Research Assistant Professor, Golestan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Gorgan, Iran

10.22124/cr.2025.29811.1853

Abstract

Introduction
Leaf rust caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia hordei, is a major disease in barley that can cause significant damage to barley yield and quality. The use of genetic resistance is the most sustainable strategy for controlling this disease. Genetic resistance to barley leaf rust is divided into two general categories: Seedling resistance or all-stage resistance (ASR) and adult plant resistance (APR). Due to the dynamics of the pathogen population, most ASR genes have become ineffective, and there is limited diversity in APR genes. This highlights the importance of searching and identifying new sources of resistance to this disease. Local genetic resources (landraces) of barley are considered a rich source of disease resistance genes. In this regard, the present study was conducted to screen local germplasm in the barley collection of the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran and to find sources of resistance to barley leaf rust disease.

Materials and methods
A total of 220 accessions from the barley collection of the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran, originating from different regions of the country, were evaluated under natural infection conditions for three consecutive cropping years from 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 in the field of Iraqi-Mahalleh Research Station of Gorgan as the hotspot of leaf rust disease. To determine the resistance of barley accessions, infection type, disease severity, and infection coefficient were evaluated. The relationship between resistance components was examined through correlation analysis. A significant difference in the variance of the infection coefficient was observed among the ten defined groups. The studied accessions were separated in a biplot based on their resistance rank and stability of response rank. Classification of the acccessions based on the infection coefficient and stability of resistance response was performed using K-means clustering with K set to 5. The resulting clusters were distinguished from one another in a multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot. All statistical analyses and visualizations were conducted using custom scripts in R software, version 4.3.2, within the RStudio environment, version 2023.9.1.494.

Research findings
The results of the frequency of infection type in the studied germplasm showed that in the first year, seven accessions (3.18%) showed infection type O (immunity reaction), six accessions (2.73%) showed infection type R (resistance), and 11 accessions (5%) showed infection type MR (moderate resistance). In the second year, 22 accessions (10%) had an immunity reaction and 10 (4.55%) and 22 (10%) accessions had infection types R and MR, respectively. In the third year, three (1.36%) and eight (3.46%) accessions showed infection types R and MR, respectively. The average disease severity in the third year was significantly higher than in the first and second years. The accessions located at the two extreme limits of the coefficient of infection had more stable reactions than the accessions with an intermediate coefficient of infection. The studied germplasm were differentiated into five groups based on the amount and changes in resistance reaction, and the results of statistical analyzes confirmed their proper separation and differentiation.

Conclusion
The results of different methods of data analysis of the research showed evidence of changes in pathogenicity in different years, which indicates the dynamics of the pathogen population in this disease hotspot and the need for continuous search to identify sources with effective resistance. The accessions KC18607, KC70044, KC18653, KC20636, KC19610, KC20924, KC18761, KC18394, KC20560, KC70441 and KC20806 showed stable resistance. Identifying resistant accessions in these landraces indicates their valuable capacity as sources of resistance to leaf rust disease. This resistant germplasm can be used in breeding programs as well as in genetic studies to identify resistance genes and develop markers.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Amouzoune, M., Rehman, S., Benkirane, R., Verma, S., Gyawali, S., Al-Jaboobi, M., Verma, R. P. S., Kehel, Z., & Amri, A. (2022). Genome-wide association study of leaf rust resistance at seedling and adult plant stages in a global barley panel. Agriculture, 12(11), 1829. doi: 10.3390/agriculture12111829.##Arifuzzaman, M., Jost, M., Wang, M., Chen, X., Perovic, D., Park, R. F., Rouse, M., Forrest, K., Hayden, M., Khan, G. A., & Dracatos, P. M. (2023). Mining the Australian grains gene bank for rust resistance in barley. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(13), 10860. doi: 10.3390/ijms241310860.##Clifford, B. (1985). Barley leaf rust. In: Roelfs, A. P., & Bushnell, W. R. (Eds.). The Cereal Rusts. Volume II: Diseases, Distribution, Epidemiology, and Control. Elsevier. 650 p.##Czembor, J. H. (2023). Barley genetic resources: Advancing conservation and applications for breeding. Agronomy, 13(12), 2901. doi: 10.3390/agronomy1312290.##Danilova, A. V., & Volkova, G. V. (2022). Virulence of barley leaf rust in the South of Russia in 2017-2019. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 20(1), e10SC01. doi: 10.5424/sjar/2022201-18337.##Derevnina, L., Singh, D., & Park, R. F. (2013). Identification and characterization of seedling and adult plant resistance to Puccinia hordei in Chinese barley germplasm. Plant Breeding, 132(6), 571-579. doi: 10.1111/pbr.12082.##Hickey, L. T., Lawson, W., Platz, G. J., Dieters, M., Arief, V. N., German, S., Fletcher, S., Park, R. F., Singh, D., Pereyra, S., & Franckowiak, J. (2011). Mapping Rph20: A gene conferring adult plant resistance to Puccinia hordei in barley. Theoretical & Applied Genetics, 123, 55-68. doi: 10.1007/s00122-011-1566-z.##Jost, M., Singh, D., Lagudah, E., Park, R. F., & Dracatos, P. (2020). Fine mapping of leaf rust resistance gene Rph13 from wild barley. Theoretical & Applied Genetics, 133(6), 1887-1895. doi: 10.1007/s00122-020-03564-6.##Lin, C. S., & Binns, M. R. (1988) A superiority measure of cultivar performance for cultivar × location data. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 68, 193-198. doi: 10.4141/cjps88-018.##Mehnaz, M., Dracatos, P. M., Park, R. F., & Singh, D. (2021). Mining Middle Eastern and Central Asian barley germplasm to understand diversity for resistance to Puccinia hordei, causal agent of leaf rust. Agronomy, 11(11), 2146. doi: 10.3390/agronomy11112146.##Milner, S. G., Jost, M., Taketa, S., Mazón, E. R., Himmelbach, A., Oppermann, M., Weise, S., Knüpffer, H., Basterrechea, M., König, P., & Schüler, D. (2019). Genebank genomics highlights the diversity of a global barley collection. Nature Genetics, 51(2), 319-326. doi: 10.1038/s41588-018-0266-x.##Oğuz, A. Ç. (2019). Resistance of wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) and barley landraces to leaf stripe (Drechslera graminea). Phytopathologia Mediterranea, 58(3), 485-496. doi: 10.14601/Phyto-10885.##Park, R. F. (2008). Breeding cereals for rust resistance in Australia. Plant Pathology, 57(4), 591-602. doi: 10.1146/annurev-phyto-080614-120324.##Park, R. F., Golegaonkar, P. G., Derevnina, L., Sandhu, K. S., Karaoglu, H., Elmansour, H. M., Dracatos, P. M., & Singh, D. (2015). Leaf rust of cultivated barley: Pathology and control. Annual Review of Phytopathology, 53(1), 565-589. doi: 10.1146/annurev-phyto-080614-120324.##Peterson, R. F., Campbell, A. B., & Hannah, A. E. (1948). A diagrammatic scale for estimating rust intensity on leaves and stems of cereals. Canadian Journal of Research, 26(5), 496-500. doi: 10.1139/cjr48c-033.##Roelfs, A. P., Singh, R. P., & Saari, E. E. (1992). Rust Diseases of Wheat: Concepts and Methods of Disease Management. CIMMYT, Mexico.##Singh, D., Dracatos, P., Derevnina, L., Zhou, M., & Park, R. F. (2015). Rph23: A new designated additive adult plant resistance gene to leaf rust in barley on chromosome 7H. Plant Breeding, 134(1), 62-69. doi: 10.1111/pbr.12229.##Singh, D., Ziems, L. A., Dracatos, P. M., Pourkheirandish, M., Tshewang, S., Czembor, P., German, S., Fowler, R. A., Snyman, L., Platz, G. J., & Park, R. F. (2018). Genome-wide association studies provide insights on genetic architecture of resistance to leaf rust in a worldwide barley collection. Molecular Breeding, 38, 43. doi: 10.1007/s11032-018-0803-4.##Visioni, A., Basile, B., Amri, A., Sanchez-Garcia, M., & Corrado, G. (2023). Advancing the conservation and utilization of barley genetic resources: Insights into germplasm management and breeding for sustainable agriculture. Plants, 12(18), 3186. doi: 10.3390/plants12183186.##Volkova, G. V., Danilova, A. V., & Kudinova, O. A. (2019). The virulence of the barley leaf rust pathogen in the North Caucasus in 2014-2017. Agricultural Biology, 54(3), 589-596. doi: 10.15389/agrobiology.2019.3.589eng.##Whelan, H., Gaunt, R., & Scott, W. (1997). The effect of leaf rust (Puccinia hordei) on yield response in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) crops with different yield potentials. Plant Pathology, 46(4), 397-406. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-3059.1997.d01-23.x.##Zahravi, M., & Dehghan, M. (2018). Identification of genetic resources of field resistance to barley leaf rust in local germplasm of cultivated barley. Iranian Journal of Genetics & Plant Breeding, 7(2), 1-12. [In Persian]. doi: 10.30479/ijgpb.2019.9786.1215.##Zahravi, M., Safavi, S. A., & Ghazvini, H. (2021). Identification of sources of resistance to yellow rust in barley landraces grown in the northwest regions of Iran. Iranian Journal of Genetics & Plant Breeding, 10(2), 13-23. [In Persian]. doi: 10.30479/IJGPB.2023.18050.1330.##Ziems, L. A., Hickey, L. T., Platz, G. J., Franckowiak, J. D., Dracatos, P. M., Singh, D., & Park, R. F. (2017). Characterisation of Rph24: A gene conferring adult plant resistance to Puccinia hordei in barley. Phytopathology, 107(7), 834-841. doi: 10.1094/PHYTO-08-16-0295-R.##Ziems, L. A., Singh, L., Dracatos, P. M., Dieters, M. J., Sanchez-Garcia, M., Amri, A., Verma, R. P. S., Park, R. F., & Singh, D. (2023). Characterization of leaf rust resistance in international barley germplasm using genome-wide association studies. Plants, 12(4), 862. doi: 10.3390/plants12040862.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics