WHEAT STRIPE RUST AND INTEGRATION OF SUSTAINABLE CONTROL STRATEGIES IN CHINA

Stripe (yellow) rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici occurs in almost all wheat-producing regions of the world. Severe countrywide epidemics in China have caused substantial yield losses. Growing resistant cultivars is the best strategy to control this disease but the pathogen can overcome resistance in wheat cultivars. The high variation in the virulence of the pathogen combined with the large areas of susceptible wheat cultivars enables the pathogen population to increase rapidly and disperse over long distances under favorable environmental conditions, resulting in severe pandemics within cropping seasons. Current stripe rust control measures are based on many years of research including the underlying epidemiology regarding year-to-year survival of the pathogen, pathways of pathogen dispersal within seasons and years, the role of P. striiformis sexual hybridization, the use of resistance sources in breeding programs, and year-round surveillance of national wheat crops that are present in different parts of the country throughout the year. All these strategies depend on accurate prediction of epidemics, more precise use of fungicides to meet national requirements and better deployment of resistance genes. New ideas with potential application in sustainable protection of stripe rust include negative regulatory gene editing, resistance gene overexpression and biological control based on microbiomes. (c) The Author(s) 2021. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Automated summary

Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici is a global disease affecting wheat production. China has experienced severe nationwide epidemics leading to significant yield losses. Growing resistant cultivars is the best strategy, but the pathogen can overcome resistance in wheat. The high variation in pathogen virulence and widespread susceptible wheat cultivars allow for rapid population increase and long-distance dispersal under favorable conditions, resulting in severe pandemics.