Virulence analysis of leaf and stripe rust populations in Pakistan through avirulence to virulence formula

Leaf and stripe rust caused byPuccinia reconditaandPuccinia striiformisare important diseases of wheat in Pakistan and worldwide. The survey was carried out to monitor virulence pattern among the pathogen populations on rust trap nurseries planted in four different locations of Pakistan in 2016 and 2017 years. The rust trap nurseries consisted of 39 leaf and 27 stripe rust near isogenic lines and data were recorded following modified Cobb's scale. No virulence was found in the leaf and stripe rust genes ofLr18, Lr19, Lr23+(GAZA), Lr28, Lr29, Lr32, Lr34, Lr35, Lr36andLr37andYr1, Yr3, Yr4, Yr5, Yr8, Yr9, Yr10, Yr15, Yr17, Yr18, Yr26, Yr28, Yr29, Opata, Yrcv, Yrsp, Super Kauz, PBW-343andAoc + Yra,respectively. Faisalabad-08, Punjab-11, AARI-2011, Millat-11, AAS-11, and Ujala-16 varieties exhibited effective resistance to both rust pathotypes. Moderately stripe rust resistance was noticed on Galaxy-13 ranging from 20-30 MRMS. Thus, the use of resistant genes and their effective combination with other genes had paramount importance to combat both leaf and stripe rust effectively.