Development and Molecular Characterization of Wheat-Aegilops peregrina Introgression Lines with Resistance to Leaf Rust and Stripe Rust

A wild non-progenitor species from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) tertiary gene pool, Aegilops peregrina (Hack.) Maire & Weiller accession pau3519 (UUSS), was used for introgression of leaf rust (caused by Puccinia triticina) and stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) resistance in bread wheat. The accession was crossed and backcrossed with hexaploid wheat line Chinese Spring Ph^I to develop two homozygous BC₂F₆ wheat-Ae. peregrina introgression lines (ILs), viz., IL pau16058 and IL pau16061, through induced homoeologous recombination. Homozygous lines were screened against six Puccinia triticina and two Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici pathotypes at the seedling stage and a mixture of prevalent pathotypes of both species at the adult plant stage. IL pau16061 showed resistance to leaf rust only, whereas IL pau16058 was resistant to both leaf and stripe rust pathotypes throughout plant life. Molecular profiling of these ILs with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers indicated that alien introgressions were mainly terminal and very few were interstitial. Identification of linked markers with advanced genomic technologies will aid in marker-assisted pyramiding of alien genes in cultivated wheat background.