Research Projects

In India, recent wheat varieties have been impacted by yellow rust pathotypes, particularly 238s119, leading to substantial crop losses. This issue is recurrent and requires timely improvement. To overcome this problem, novel genes from diverse sources can be used. Durum wheats, typically grown in central and peninsular India, are not selected for stripe rust resistance due to their unique environmental conditions. Despite common "AB" genomes, there is always a possibility of variation in durum wheats that is not available in bread wheat. To study the genetics and characterize resistance in tetraploid durum wheats against the newly evolved and virulent stripe rust pathotype 238s119, researchers have evaluated several durum lines from various sources. They found that these lines carry crucial stripe rust resistance genes that can be incorporated into bread wheat varieties. Characterizing and mapping stripe rust resistance loci or s among these lines could significantly improve bread wheat genotypes against this fungal disease. The current project proposes characterizing durum lines from different sources through GWAs and biparental mapping for stripe rust resistance against 238s119.