ARS breakthrough in wheat disease

A breakthrough in the cause of a major fungal disease that threatens the worlds wheat supply has been made by USDA scientists with the Agricultural Research Service. The ARS scientists found that the pathogen that causes stripe rust appears to use "sexual recombination"  to adapt to resistant wheat varieties. The fungus is able to reproduce on the leaves of an alternate host, the ornamental barberry plant. They found that the barberry serves as an alternate host for stripe rust – overwintering spores germinate in the spring, and spores from mating between strains of the fungus can infect wheat.

The research began last year after stripe rust infected leaves on barberry plants at a couple of sites on the University of Minnesota campus.

Barberry is already controlled in areas where wheat is threatened by another fungal pathogen, stem rust. The research is expected to help lead to better control of barberry in the Pacific Northwest and other areas where cooler temperatures during the wheat growing season increase the threat of stripe rust.