The latest version of the Mehtaensis newsletter (a 6 monthly newsletter named after Prof. K.C. Mehta) has just been published by the DWR, Regional Station, Flowerdale, Shimla. Compiled and edited by Dr. S.C. Bhardwaj, O.P. Gangwar, Pramod Prasad and Hanif Khan with technical assistance from S.B. Singh and Subodh Kumar. Mehtaensis contains a detailed summary of all the rust activities and race analysis results from India and neighbouring South Asian countries during the period July – Dec 2014. The executive summary is reproduced here:
“During the off season/summer crop (2013-14) all the rusts of wheat were observed at Wellington (Tamil Nadu), Dalang (Himachal Pradesh) and Ladakh (Jammu & Kashmir). Yellow and brown rusts were first observed on 12th of September and 6th of October, respectively on wheat disease monitoring nursery (WDMN) at Shimla. Scientists from PAU, Ludhiana have observed (19.12.2014) the occurrence of yellow rust of wheat in a farmer’s field in village Daroli Upper near Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. The spot has been chemically treated to eradicate the focus of infection. During the period about 135 samples of wheat rusts were collected/received. So far 38 samples of all three rusts of wheat have been analysed.
Only two pathotypes each of black {34-1 (10G13) and 40A (62G29)} as well as yellow rust {46S119 and 46S117 (new pathotype)} of wheat were observed till date. Brown rust, pathotypes 77-5 (121R63-1), 77-11 (125R28), 104-4 (93R57) and 162-1 (93R47) were identified in Himachal Pradesh samples. In samples from Tamil Nadu only 77-9 (121R60-1) and 77-10 (377R60-1) were observed.
Seedling resistance test (SRT) of more than 1070 lines of wheat and barley, including AVT, NBDSN and EBDSN entries have been done against different pathotypes of three rusts of wheat and barley. Analysis of polymorphism among brown rust pathotypes based on SSR marker analysis and their infection types on brown rust differential sets and the clustering in the same was done in the form of dendrogram.
Forty five different crosses were attempted for inheritance studies and gene transfer for rust resistance. More than fifty populations/selections were analyzed for seedling resistance against suitable rust pathotypes and were transplanted in the field for advancement of generations for genetic analysis and gene pyramiding studies.
Repository of pathotypes of different rust pathogens of wheat, barley, oat and linseed was maintained and inoculum of wheat and barley rusts was supplied to 39 centers/Scientists.
For monitoring the occurrence/spread of different diseases of wheat, WDMN and SAARC-WDMN were planted at different locations”. Mehtaensis Vol. 35 (1). ICAR. Indian Inst of Wheat and Barley Research, Regional Station, Flowerdale, Shimla 171 002 H.P. India