Identification of Wheat Resistance Genes in Wheat Germplasm Using Molecular Markers.

() is the main threat to global food security; it is a fungal disease that presents one of the most serious threats to wheat crops, causing severe yield losses worldwide, including in Kazakhstan. The pathogen leads to crop losses reaching from 15 to 50%. The objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate a wheat collection for resistance during the adult plant and seedling growth stages, (2) identify the sources of resistance genes that provide resistance to using molecular markers linked to genes, and (3) identify potentially useful resistant wheat genotypes among cultivars and advanced breeding lines. This study evaluated 60 winter and spring wheat genotypes for resistance. According to the field reactions, 22 entries (35.7%) showed ≤10% disease severity in both years. The resistant reaction to a mix of isolates in the seedling stage was associated with adult plant resistance to disease in four wheat entries. The resistance of Rosinka 3 was due to the presence of ; Omskaya 18 showed an immune reaction in the field and a moderately susceptible reaction in the seedling stage, possibly provided by a combination of the and genes. The high resistance in both the adult and seedling stages of Omskaya 29 and KR11-03 was due to the and genes and, possibly, due to the presence of unknown genes. A linked marker analysis revealed the presence of several genes. The proportion of wheat entries with genes was quite high at twenty-seven of the genotypes tested (45.0%), including four from Kazakhstan, nine from Russia, nine from the CIMMYT-ICARDA-IWWIP program, and five from the CIMMYT-SEPTMON nursery. Among the sixty entries, ten (16.7%) carried the resistance genes and , and the gene was found in seven cultivars (11.6%). Marker-assisted selection can be efficiently applied to develop wheat cultivars with effective gene combinations that would directly assist in developing durable resistance in Kazakhstan. Resistant genotypes could also be used as improved parents in crossing programs to develop new wheat cultivars.