The resistance of cereals to yellow rust and its exploitation by plant breeding

Abstract

Yellow rust is a fungus disease of considerable importance in cereal production in Britain and in other temperate cereal-growing areas. Breeding for resistance in wheat started in 1905, but in 1971 the three potentially most productive wheat varieties in Britain were susceptible to the disease. Wheat varieties are being bred using both ‘major gene' and ‘field-resistance' mechanisms. Evidence at present suggests that these methods used singly will be inadequate to introduce stable forms of resistance into the crops; a combination of both types offers more promise but presents practical difficulties. Resistance is predominantly transmitted as a dominant character. A new approach to wheat and barley breeding - the use of F 1 -hybrid varieties - offers a more flexible method of exploiting the inter-varietal and inter-specific sources of resistance.