Tackling a Cereal Killer on the Run: Unending Fight Between Wheat Breeding and Foliar Rusts
Published in New Horizons in Wheat and Barley Research, 2022
Abstract: Outbreaks of emerging new pathotypes of wheat rust pathogens, increasing at an alarming rate, are threatening the global food security. Wheat rusts caused by Puccinia species are major biotic constraints in efforts to sustain wheat production worldwide. Their quick evolution and capacity to spread over long distances make the resistance breeding in wheat a very challenging task. Pre-emptive or anticipatory breeding and sensible deployment of rust resistant cultivars have proven to be an effective strategy to manage wheat rusts. Efforts are focussed to accelerate rust resistance breeding strategies and explore wheat rust epidemiology. The collaborative role of wheat breeders and pathologists in addressing these threats to plant health is essential. This chapter presents the efforts done for rust resistance breeding at the global level and deployment of resistant cultivars in different geographical areas to combat the effect of stripe rust. Only marginal increase in wheat area is recorded, but the strategic deployment of rust resistance genes is most protective of crop production and crucial in sustaining the production levels of wheat.
Recommended citation: Sharma, A., Shamshad, M., Kaur, S., Srivastava, P., Mavi, G.S., Sohu, V.S. (2022). Tackling a Cereal Killer on the Run: Unending Fight Between Wheat Breeding and Foliar Rusts. In: , et al. New Horizons in Wheat and Barley Research . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4449-8_10