Home • Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici v2.0
Photo of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici v2.0

This genome was sequenced by the Broad Institute.

Rust fungi (Pucciniales) cause some of the most devastating plant diseases and are comprised of more than 7,000 species in over 100 genera (1,2). The genus Puccinia is the largest in the Pucciniales and is considered the most economically destructive genera of biotrophic fungi (3). Members of this genus are serious pathogens on all major cereal crop species except rice. Some examples are Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, the causal agent of wheat and barley stem rust (black rust); P. striiformis f. sp. tritici, wheat stripe rust (yellow rust); P. triticina, wheat leaf rust (brown rust). Cereal rust fungi are well suited to incite serious epidemics because they can produce large numbers of infectious spores (urediniospores) that are adapted for aerial transport and the crops they infect are often grown contiguously over large acreages. In 1999, a new highly virulent race TTKSK (Ug99) of P. graminis was identified in Uganda, and since then has spread, causing a widening epidemic in Kenya and Ethiopia (4). We have sequenced the genomes of P. graminis f. sp. tritici and P. triticina, and will generate sequence for P. striiformis f. sp. tritici in 2010.

P. graminis was sequenced by the Broad Institute. Please see Broad Institute web site for additional details.

Genome Reference(s)