Abstract

Stripe (yellow) rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici, is one of the major diseases of wheat in the world. Development and use of resistant wheat cultivars is the most economical and environmentally friendly solution in combating wheat stripe rust. Field experiments were carried out at two sites in Ethiopia (Kulumsa and Meraro) and seedling tests were conducted at KARC greenhouse during the 2015 cropping season to evaluate the response 192 elite spring bread wheat genotypes and eight checks to the prevailing races of stripe rust at adult plant stage and seedling stage. About 72.5 and 42.5% of the lines exhibited resistance to stripe rust during the field screening at Kulumsa and Meraro, respectively. Disease was more severe at the cooler site Meraro than Kulumsa. Eighteen genotypes at Kulumsa and 16 genotypes at Merao were almost immune to the disease (severity and AUDPC of zero). Seventy-two genotypes (36%) showed resistant reaction at both locations in field condition for adult plant stage (CI < 20). For seedling, 47% for mixed isolates and 31% for kubsa isolates showed resistance reaction responses to stripe rust disease based on coefficient of infection (CI).

Key words: Puccinia striiformis, resistance, susceptible, Triticum aestivum, genotypes.