Stripe Rust: A Review of the Disease, Yr Genes and its Molecular Markers

Wheat is the most essential food used by nearly 40% of the total population of the world. Yellow or stripe rust (produced by Puccinia striiformis), is a globally significant disease of wheat. Stripe rust was primarily considered a disease of cooler climate (2°C - 15°C), upper altitudes and northern latitudes, but current epidemics of the disease have confronted this supposition because fresh strains have greater adaptation to higher temperatures and countries closer to the equator. Crop damages can reach 50 - 100%, due to infected plants and shriveled grain. These problems can be overcome by knowledge about the disease, identifying resistance lines and subsequently develop resistant varieties with an aim to shorten the disease cycle. One of the quickest ways in this direction is the designing molecular markers for non-race-specific resistance genes. Use of molecular markers is efficient tool for screening diversity of rust genes in wheat germplasm and can facilitate the integration of multiple genes into wheat by pyramiding and transformation. This review discusses information regarding rust disease and resistance in wheat to tackle the disease through resistance breeding.