Wheat leaf rust Wheat leaf rust Wheat leaf rust is a fungal disease that affects wheat, barley and rye stems, leaves and grains. In temperate zones it is destructive on winter wheat because the pathogen overwinters. Infections can lead up to 20% yield loss, which is exacerbated by dying leaves, which fertilize the fungus. The pathogen is "Puccinia" rust fungus. "Puccinia triticina" causes "black rust", "P. recondita" causes "brown rust", and "P. striiformis" causes "yellow rust". It is the most prevalent of all the wheat rust diseases, occurring in most wheat growing regions. It causes serious epidemics in North America, Mexico and South
Wheat leaf rust role in resistance breeding for cultivated crops. The earliest single resistance gene was identified as effective against yellow rust. Numerous single genes for leaf rust resistance have since been identified, the 47th genes prevent crop losses due to "Puccinia recondite" Rob. Ex Desm. f.sp. "tritici" infections, which can range from 5% to 15% depending on the stage of crop development. Leaf rust resistance gene is an effective adult-plant resistance gene that increases resistance of plants against "P. recondita" f.sp." tritici" (UVPrt2 or UVPrt13) infections, especially when combined with genes Lr13 and gene Lr34 (Kloppers & Pretorius, 1997). Lr37 originates from