Wheat stripe rust epidemic and virulence of Puccinia striiformis f. sp tritici in China in 2002

In China, wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat and can cause severe yield losses when susceptible cultivars are grown and weather conditions are favorable for the disease. Wheat stripe rust most frequently affects the winter wheat growing areas in Northwest, Southwest, and North China, and the spring wheat growing areas in Northwest China. In the 2001-2002 growing season, a widespread stripe rust epidemic affected about 6.6 million hectares of wheat in 11 provinces: Sichuan, Chongqing, eastern Gansu, southern and western Shaanxi, southern and central Ningxia, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, Henan, southern and central Hebei, and Shandong. The epidemic could be attributed to relatively warm weather from November 2001 to March 2002, high frequencies of stripe rust races CYR31 and CYR32, and widely grown susceptible cultivars. Race CYR31 was virulent on the Chinese differential cultivars Trigo Eureka, Fulhard, Lutescens 128, Mentana, Virgilio, Abbondanza, Early Premium, Funo, Danish 1, Fengchan 3, Lovrin 13, Shuiyuan 11, Lovrin 10, and Hybrid 46. Race CYR32 had all the virulence factors of CYR31, plus virulences on Chinese differential cultivars Jubilejina 2 and Kangyin 655, i.e., CYR32 was virulent on all differential cultivars, except Zhong 4. When tested on the world and European differential and some other resistant genotypes, CYR32 was virulent on Chinese 166 (Yr1), Heines VII (Yr2, Yr25, and YrHVII), Vilmorin 23 (Yr3a and Yr4a), Heines Kolben (Yr6 and YrHK), Lee (Yr7, Yr22, and Yr23), Clement (Yr9, Yr25, YrCle), VPM1 (Yr17), Selkirk (Yr27), Anza (YrA), Carstens V (YrCV1, YrCV2, and YrCV3), Gaby (YrG), Strubes Dickkopf (Yr25), and Suwon 92/Omar (YrSO). Resistance genes in Triticum spelta album (Yr5), Zhong 4, and Moro (Yr10 and YrMor) were effective against all races identified.