ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1581007
Evaluation of elite wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes for resistance to stem rust (Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici), yield and yield stability
Provisionally accepted
- 1Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya
- 2The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Nairobi, Kenya
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Stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp tritici, is a destructive fungal disease of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and a major challenge to wheat production in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. However, stem rust pathogen's continuous evolution and variable nature predisposes wheat to serious genetic vulnerability that requires active steps to incorporate new effective sources of resistance in wheat breeding lines. The objectives of this study were to; i) determine the adult plant resistance to stem rust of the CIMMYT elite wheat lines under field conditions and ii) determine the genotype by environment interaction in the elite wheat lines across seasons. Twenty-five genotypes were evaluated over three seasons at KALRO, Njoro in a 5 × 5 partially balanced square lattice design with three replicates. Residual maximum likelihood estimates revealed significant (P≤0.001) genotype, season and genotype by season interaction effects for the area under disease progress curve and agronomic traits, demonstrating significance of environment on genotypic expression. There was a significant (p≤ 0.001) negative correlation between grain yield (GY) and disease components and positive correlations between GY and kernels per spike (KS -1 ),, biomass (BM), harvest index (HI) and thousand kernel weight (TKW). Broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) estimates ranged from 59.9044.92 % for KS -1 grain filling period to 95.581.91 % for final disease severitydays to flowering (DF). Adult plant resistance genes Lr34/Yr18/Sr57, Lr46/Yr29/Sr58, Sr2/Yr30 and Lr67/Yr46/Sr55/Pm46 were present in 21 genotypes in combinations. Considering the disease response and yield potential, genotypes 8790929, 8790027, 8790948 and 8790935 showed the lowest stem rust infection and highest grain yield. These high-yielding genotypes appear to possess the desired level of resistance and are therefore recommended as sources of genes for introgression into adapted cultivars and can be used as , suitable candidates for future deployment in stem rust resistance breeding and varietal release.
Keywords: stem rust, Bread wheat (T. æstivum L.), adult plant resistance, Genotype by environment (G × E) interaction, Wheat breeding for resistance
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kemboi, Ojwang and Bhavani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jenniffer Jelimo Kemboi, Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya
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