A wide collection of wild emmer accessions to Recover diversity for cultivated wheats

MAZZUCOTELLI E; OZKAN H; STEFFENSON B; MATNI O; MASTRANGELO AM; RONCALLO P; ECHENIQUE V; DESIDERIO F; BARABASCHI D; BATTAGLIA R; MARÈ C; CATTIVELLI L

Pisa

Congreso; SIBV-SIGA Joint Congress "Sustainability of agricultural environment: contributions of plant genetics and physiology"; 2017

The wild emmer wheat, Triticum dicoccoides (AABB), is the progenitor of the domesticated durum wheat (AABB), and fully fertile in cross with it. Wild emmer harbors a wide spectrum of genes and alleles lost duringdomestication and breeding, nevertheless a number of genes and alleles positively contributing to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, yield components and quality have been found in wild emmer and introgressedin cultivated wheats. Yellow rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis (Pst), is one of the most important disease of wheat worldwide. Also in Italy, spring weather conditions of the last years favored a persistentpresence. The majority of the known resistance genes are already ineffective against current races of Pst. A wide collection of wild emmer accessions, equipped with genotypic data, has been established to recoveruseful genetic diversity for cultivated wheats. This collection is being exploited for genome wide association (GWAS) for a number of traits, including yellow rust resistance.