Burkhard Steuernagel

Abstract: The re-emergence of stem rust on wheat in Europe and Africa is reinforcing the ongoing need for durable resistance gene deployment. Here, we isolate from wheat, Sr26 and Sr61, with both genes independently introduced as alien chromosome introgressions from tall wheat grass (Thinopyrum ponticum). Mutational genomics and targeted exome capture identify Sr26 and Sr61 as separate single genes that encode unrelated (34.8%) nucleotide binding site leucine rich repeat proteins. Sr26 and Sr61 are each validated by transgenic complementation using endogenous and/or heterologous promoter sequences. Sr61 orthologs are absent from current Thinopyrum elongatum and wheat pan genome sequences, contrasting with Sr26 where homologues are present. Using gene-specific markers, we validate the presence of both genes on a single recombinant alien segment developed in wheat. The co-location of these genes on a small non-recombinogenic segment simplifies their deployment as a gene stack and potentially enhances their resistance durability.

TL;DR: In this article, a chromosome-scale annotated assembly of the 7.9-gigabase rye genome and extensively validated its quality by using a suite of molecular genetic resources was presented.

TL;DR: A marker co-segregating with rym11 was developed providing the basis for gene isolation and efficient marker-assisted selection and the genetic interval was efficiently narrowed down from the initial 10.72 % recombination to 0.074 %.

TL;DR: Genome-wide analysis of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes revealed species-specific and lineage-specific NLR genes and variants, demonstrating the potential of Aegilops genomes for wheat improvement.