Leaf rust and stripe rust resistance studies in wheat

Wheat is one of the important leading cereals providing daily sustenance to the large proportion of world. Since the initiation of the Green Revolution in the mid sixties, India achieved remarkable increase in production and productivity of wheat. Increasing wheat yield potential in the developing world is a primary aim for food security concern. Both biotic and abiotic stresses are major hurdles for attaining this goal. Today, the most challenging task for wheat breeders is to increase grain yield as well as to improve the grain quality of crop. Although wheat has a wide range of climatic adaptability, it is usually affected by many fungal diseases the most devastating of which are the rust diseases. This disease often causes 10-30% yield losses, and under favorable conditions the loss can even be 100 %. Rust epidemics caused yield losses of more than one million tons in 1950, 1964, 1990 and 2002. Stripe (yellow) rust is a widespread disease across major wheat growing regions with diverse cropping systems, growing seasons and germplasm characteristics. Stripe rust and Leaf rust of wheat and molecular analysis has been discussed in this book.