Journal of Plant Pathology & Microbiology

Abstract

Distribution and Physiologic Races of Wheat Stem Rust in Tigray, Ethiopia

Teklay Abebe, Getaneh Woldeab and Woubit Dawit

Wheat stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici is amongst the biotic catastrophic diseases because of its ability to cause complete annihilation of wheat crops during epidemic years. The highland of Ethiopia is considered as a hot spot for the development of stem rust complex. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the distribution and intensity; to detect the virulence diversity of the pathogen in South Tigray. The findings of this paper were based on stem rust surveys to compute the intensity; race analysis by inoculating isolates on to the 20 differential hosts. During the survey, 66 wheat fields were examined in 2010, of which 33.3% were affected. The overall mean incidence and severity of the disease were 15.6 and 8.5%, respectively. A total of 20 races were identified from 32 isolates, which included the most prevalent races TTSNK, RRJJC and HRJJC. Most of the the genes possessed by the differentials were ineffective against one or more of the tested isolates except Sr24. Sr genes 24 and Tmp were effective in 100 and 90% of the races, respectively. In contrast, SrMcN and Sr9b were ineffective to
96.9 and 93.8% of the isolates tested, respectively. Thus, use of effective Sr genes singly or incombination with other genes through gene pyramiding has paramount importance as the additive effects of several genes offer the cultivar a wider base stem rust resistance along with periodic race survey to track further virulence evolution.