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Pak. J. Bot., 45(S1): 359-366, 2013.

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DEVELOPMENT OF PUTATIVE MOLECULAR MARKERS TO TRACE DURABLE RUST RESISTANCE GENES IN WHEAT BREEDING STOCKS

MARYUM ZEB¹, MUHAMMAD KAUSAR NAWAZ SHAH² AND RANI FARYAL^1,3*

Abstract: Wheat plays a central role in Pakistan’s food economy in terms of production and consumption. Wheat shares 3.1% of national GDP. Rusts are among the devastating diseases of wheat. A large number of rust resistance genes are known in wheat for stripe (yellow), leaf (brown) and stem rust. Selection for durable resistance in rust breeding programs is typically carried out in field screening nurseries or under controlled conditions only for advanced breeding lines. Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) can be useful under such conditions. Availability of small number of DNA markers for identification of genes involved in rust resistance makes MAS application difficult. Identification and designing of new PCR primers may help to select rust resistant genotypes from wheat breeding stocks in early segregating generations. This study is designed with aim to identify and design PCR primers for resistance genes in wheat breeding stocks. Data and sequences were retrieved through extensive literature and databases search. Data mining was done on public domain available databases i.e., NCBI nucleotide, Grain Genes and Plant GDB. A total of 12 sequences for leaf rust resistance, 13 for stripe rust resistance and 2 for stem rust resistance were retrieved. Homology studies, motif finding and their phylogenetic analysis was done to infer their possible functions and to develop PCR primers to mark the rust resistance genes in wheat germplasm. These markers were validated for detection of rust resistance gene among 16 local varieties, which proved valuable for future wheat breeding.

¹Dept. of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road,  Islamabad 44000, Pakistan

²Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

³Dept. of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

^*Corresponding author’s e-mail:  ranifaryal@comsats.edu.pk