Wageningen, The Netherlands
March 17, 2010

Scientists of the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen UR have presented their unique gene bank of the ravaging stripe rust fungus Puccinia striiformis f.sp.tritici to the Global Rust Reference Centre of Aarhus University in Denmark. In addition to the fungal collection containing thousands of isolates, the scientists also handed over the complete database with detailed information about the isolates. The collection is stored in liquid nitrogen, which preserves fugal spores for decades. As a result of this transfer to the Global Rust Reference Centre, the Wageningen collection will become more accessible for research into stripe rust, one of the main pathogens in global wheat production.

“We see it as our responsibility to ensure that this valuable stripe rust collection, which includes a range of historical physiological races of the fungus, is fully available for research and training of scientists and plant breeders,” says Gert Kema of Plant Research International (part of the Plant Sciences Group). “The recently established Global Rust Reference Centre is an excellent location for our collection, as it aims to facilitate the research and training of scientists.”

Mogens Støvring Hovmøller, manager of the Global Rust Reference Centre: "The material from Wageningen is a very important addition to our own collection. It contains many well characterised isolates from the past. These will be of great value to our users and will help to fight the increasing problems with yellow rust epidemics in many parts of the world"

The Wageningen collection of stripe rust includes unique ‘old’ races of the fungus. These strains of the fungus date back to the time when resistant wheat varieties rarely if ever impeded the fungus from growing and spreading in Europe and many developing countries. These races make the collection eminently suitable for performing DNA research into the genetic differences between races and their development and origin. Kema: “Recent biological and technological developments in DNA research will enable to map the genomes of dozens of races. This knowledge could greatly stimulate the development of wheat varieties with new resistances that this fungus will find hard to break.”

Stripe rust is one of the major wheat pathogens globally. This is why plant breeders develop varieties that are resistant to the fungus that causes the disease, Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici. In return, the fungus tries to circumvent the resistance, which is the main reason for the development of so many different races around the world. Every race is capable of affecting several specific wheat varieties. Which varieties are involved is what characterises the race, making it important for plant breeders to use properly characterised fungus material in their research and breeding and selection programmes.

The former DLO-Research Institute for Plant Protection (IPO) took the initiative for the collection as a result of studies by renowned Wageningen professor Jan Carel Zadoks, who was awarded his doctoral degree in 1961 for research into the epidemiology of the fungus. The collection and the research into the collection came to global prominence when the Wageningen scientists Ron Stubbs (deceased) and Cor van Silfhout and their colleagues collected and characterised thousands of fungus samples from all over the world in cooperation with CIMMYT in Mexico. Since then, the collection has been intensively used for research and training purposes.

At the end of the previous century, the number of Dutch wheat breeding companies declined considerably. Partly in view of this development, Wageningen also scaled down its research into stripe rust. This is another reason why Plant Research International decided to present the collection to the Global Rust Reference Centre. Established in 2008, the centre is a joint initiative of the Aarhus University in Denmark and the international research institutes ICARDA in Syria and CIMMYT in Mexico.

The transport of the collection from Wageningen to Aarhus was arranged by the company Linde Gas, which has both the expertise and the equipment required.

Website: http://www.wur.nl

Published: March 17, 2010