TRUSTLINES DevelopmenT of pure Lines resistant to yellow Rust in bread wheat using Doubled Haploid technique

The European Green Deal, the European Union's Farm to Fork Strategy, is a major environmental policy signed by the European Commission on May 20, 2020, which aims to create a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. One of the important goals of this agreement is to increase the sustainability of agriculture and reduce its impact on the environment. The importance of reducing pesticides used in agriculture is very important here.

Yellow rust (_Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritic_i) is one of the most important fungal diseases of wheat in the World. Fungus threatens wheat production in Türkiye and all of the world and causes serious yield losses in suitable years via epidemics. Although there are some fungicides to control disease, the most effective method is to develop resistant cultivars because of resistance occurring and hazardous effects of fungicide on environment and human health. Complexity of the pathogen life cycle causes new races to occur. This reality makes the resistance breeding efforts. It is known that the Warrior race which has emerged in Europa in recent years have overcome the majority of the important resistance genes. Hence lots of resistant varieties have become susceptible.  This new yellow rust race entered Türkiye from the Trance Region and caused epidemics. Surveys and in vivo tests have found out that lots of our varieties are susceptible to this new race. Yr5 and Yr15 resistance genes are still effective for lots of yellow rust races including Warrior and have been used to develop new resistant wheat varieties in the World. KASP (Kantitative Allele Specific Primer) markers developed very recently have accelerated the efforts of the breeding studies against this race.  With this proposed project, the Yr5 and YR15 genes that provide resistance to yellow rust will be transferred to cultivated varieties through crossing and backcrossing.  DH pure lines will be obtained by anther culture method in backcrossed plants, Both phenotypic and genotypic tests will be carried out on these lines and plants containing both genes will be determined. In this way, gene pyramiding will be carried out for the first time against yellow rust disease and plants will still maintain their resistance in the event of a possible gene breakage. With this method, resistance to yellow rust disease can be maintained in wheat farming.

outcome of this project and will constitute a valuable resource for future projects and breeding studies. Young researchers will be trained on Backcrossing for resistance breeding, Doubled Haploid technique, speed breeding, and the use of KASP markers. This will contribute to bilateral cooperation and the development and knowledge transfer. At the same time, the results will be published in national and international journals and congresses in order to increase the visibility and dissemination of the outputs obtained as a result of the project.