Wheat stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) had been a devastating foliar disease worldwide during the 20th century. With the emergence of Ug99 races, which are virulent to most stem rust resistance genes deployed in wheat varieties and advanced lines, stem rust has once again become a disease threatening global wheat production. Sr52, derived from Dasypyrum villosum and mapped to the long arm of 6V#3, is one of the few effective genes against Ug99 races. In this study, the wheat-D. villosum Robertsonian translocation T6AS·6V#3L, the only stock carrying Sr52 released to experimental and breeding programs so far, was crossed with a CS ph1b mutant to induce recombinants with shortened 6V#3L chromosome segments locating Sr52. Six independent homozygous recombinants with different segment sizes and breakpoints were developed and characterized using in situ hybridization and molecular markers analyses. Stem rust resistance evaluation showed that only three terminal recombinants (1381, 1380, and 1392) containing 8%, 22%, and 30% of the distal segment of 6V#3L, respectively, were resistant to stem rust. Thus, the gene Sr52 was mapped into 6V#3L bin FL 0.92-1.00. In addition, three molecular markers in the Sr52-located interval of 6V#3L were confirmed to be diagnostic markers for selection of Sr52 introgressed into common wheat. The newly developed small segment translocation lines with Sr52 and the identified molecular markers closely linked to Sr52 will be valuable for wheat disease breeding.
Keywords: D. villosum; Sr52; common wheat; molecular marker; small segment translocation line; stem rust resistance.