Quantitative trait loci for non-race-specific, high-temperature adult-plant resistance to stripe rust in wheat cultivar Express.

Wheat cultivar Express has durable, high-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) resistance to stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici). To elucidate the genetic basis of the resistance, Express was crossed with 'Avocet Susceptible' (AVS). A mapping population of 146 F(5) recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed using single-seed descent. The RILs were evaluated at two sites near Pullman in eastern Washington and one site near Mount Vernon in western Washington in 2005, and were evaluated near Pullman in 2006 under natural stripe rust infection of predominant races virulent on seedlings of Express. Infection type (IT) and disease severity (DS) were recorded three times for each line during each growing season. The DS data were used to calculate relative area under the disease progress curve (rAUDPC) values. Both IT and rAUDPC data showed continuous distributions, indicating that the Express HTAP resistance was controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTL). Resistance gene analog polymorphism (RGAP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) techniques were used to map the HTAP resistance QTL. Three QTL were detected with significant additive effects, explaining 49.5-69.6% of the phenotypic variation for rAUDPC. Two of the QTL explained 30.8-42.7% of the phenotypic variation for IT. The three QTL were mapped to wheat chromosomes 6AS, 3BL and 1BL, and were designated as QYrex.wgp-6AS, QYrex.wgp-3BL and QYrex.wgp-1BL, respectively. QYrex.wgp-6AS and QYrex.wgp-3BL, which had higher effects than QYrex.wgp-1BL, were different from previously reported QTL/genes for adult-plant resistance. Markers Xgwm334-Xwgp56 and Xgwm299-Xwgp66 flanking the two major QTL were highly polymorphic in various wheat genotypes, suggesting that these markers are useful in marker-assisted selection.