Spatial genetic diversity and interregional spread of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in Northwest China

In China, wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat. The Longnan and Linxia regions in Gansu Province and Qinghai Province are the major over-summering regions for the pathogen and key epidemiological zones in Northwest China. Population genetic diversity and interregional long-distance spread of the wheat stripe rust pathogen in Northwest China were studied using SSR markers. The genetic diversity in the Longnan population was much higher than those in the Linxia and Qinghai populations. Therefore, the molecular data confirmed that the Longnan region is a center of genetic diversity for P. striiformis f. sp. tritici in Northwest China. The low genetic differentiation (Gst = 0.15) and the extensive gene flow (Nm = 1.37) were found among the three regions in Northwest China. The most important conclusion of this study is that the stripe rust inoculum in Qinghai can come from both Longnan and Linxia, but mainly from Longnan directly in the spring.