Plant Pathalogy

Research Group: Plant Pathalogy

Introduction

Plant pathology group is engaged in the epidemiological research of important wheat diseases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including yellow rust, leaf rust, barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), loose smut, karnal bunt and black point.

Group Composition

Dr. Syed Jawad Ahmad Shah, Deputy Chief Scientist/Group Leader

Mr. Syed Manzoor Shah, Principal Scientific Assistant

Mr. Muhammad Asif, SA-III

Research Objectives

To detect new rust virulences and foster the development of disease resistant wheat germplasm and varieties

Salient Achievements

Knowledge of prevelent virulences is vital for rust resistance wheat breeding. Following yellow rust pathotypes were proposed during last five years.

Puccinia striiformis f. Sp. tritici races detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Years	Pathotypes
2005	70E5, 87E5
2006	60E5, 71E160
2007	67E0, 71E8, 67E0, 71E17, 65E0
2008	71E0, 70E0, 92E0
2009	199E16, 128E0, 199E0, 7E0, 71E16
2010	2E0, 2E16, 70E16, 67E16, 71E16, 68E16, 71E144
2011	0E0, 0E16, 71E176, 71E144, 64E0, 71E16, 103E144
2012	68E128,103E16, 103E18, 103E202, 16E56, 119E184, 119E152
2013	0E0, 96E0, 115E160, 59E240, 98E16, 102E24, 106E88, 102E176, 102E16
2017	103E255, 63E184, 127E255, 111E15, 101E0, 111E21
2018	109E154, 97E17, 13E172, 95E123, 39E0
2019	126E14, 126E199, 126E239, 126E255, 46E188, 127E255, 119E255, 127E255, 102E255
2020	0E0, 55E13, 63E174, 63E223, 63E233, 63E233
2021	0E0, 78E175, 71E160, 71E164, 71E165, 71E173
2022	0E0, 12E255, 126E238, 6E255

2.Effectiveness of Yr-resistance genes at the adult plant stage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

High Resistant	Resistant	Moderately Resistant	Moderately Susceptible	Susceptible
Disease severity 0 (%)	Disease severity 0-5 (%)	Disease severity 5-30 (%)	Disease severity 30-60 (%)	Disease severity 60-100 (%)
Yr5 Yr10 Yr15 Yr26	Yr24	Yr1 Yr8 Yr17 Yr18 Yr32 YrSp	Yr9 Yr27	Yr6 Yr7 YrA

3.Frequency of yellow rust resistance genes prevelent in wheat varieties and land races of Pakistan.

4. Validated the use phenotypic marker of leaf tip necrosis (LTN) to predict the presence of durable rust resistance gene pair Lr34/Yr18 for conventional wheat breeding system of Pakistan.

PCR amplification products for Lr34/Yr18 marker (150 bp) from 14 Pakistani wheat varieties and for positive control. LTN expression is shown on right at bottom.

5. Four BYDV/CYDV aphid vectors including Rhopalosiphum padi, R. maidis, Sitobion avenae and Schizaphus graminum (a-d) were detected at NIFA are presented along with typical symptoms of BYD (e1-e3).

6. Wheat Seed Pathology

Convential methods including symptoms, cultural and spore morphology are being used for seed health risk analyses of black point and karnal bunt diseases of breeding lines and cultivars.

Key symptoms of black point

Dark brown discoloration around the embryo end of the seed and near the brush and along the crease

Endosperm turns brownish-gray.

Infected seeds fail to germinate

Dark brown discoloration on the coleoptible of infected seedlings.

Key symptoms of karnal bunt

Bunted heads are slender, have an open appearance & stay green longer than healthy heads.

Glumes are normal in size and shape but are more open on infected heads.

Seed contaminated with bunt spores has a darkened appearance and a pungent odor of decaying fish.

Bunt balls in harvested grain are dull gray and the approximate shape of normal kernels.

7. National Wheat Improvement Program (NWIP) Collaborating with NWIP by providing critical wheat rust screening and under this program contributed in the development and release of more than 100 disease resistant wheat varieties in Pakistan.

List of Student Supervised
S. No	Name of Student	Program	University	Year	Title	Supervisor at NIFA	Supervisor at university
1	Muhammad Ibrahim	PhD	The University of Agriculture, Peshawar	2017	Surveillance, phenotypic and molecular characterization of resistance in wheat to yellow rust caused by Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici Erikss.	Dr. Syed Jawad Ahmad Shah	Prof. Dr. Shaukat Hussain
2	Khilwat Afridi	PhD	-do-	2016	Inheritance of yellow rust resistance and gluten content in wheat.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Naqib Ullah Khan
3	Imranullah Khan	M.Sc (Hons))	-do-	2018	Genotype by Environment interaction and stability studies for yield and resistance to yellow rust caused Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in wheat	-do-	-do-
4	Muhammad Zia	-do-	-do-	2016	Resistance of various wheat genotypes under yellow rust epidemic and comparison of their predicted and actual yields	-do-	Prof. Dr. Shaukat Hussain
5	Ahmad Ali	-do-	-do-	2016	Pathogenicity of Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici to the field grown yellow rust differentials and candidate wheat varieties.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Fazli Raziq
6	Ghulam Farooq	M.Phil	Hazara University Mansehra.	2013	Genetic diversity of yellow rust resistance and other traits in wheat	-do-	Dr. Inamullah, Assistant Professor.
7	Munsif Ur Rehman	M.Sc (Hons)	The University of Agriculture, Peshawar	2012	Yellow rust situation, resistance of cultivated varieties, and identification of effective genes and slow rusting resistance sources for wheat improvement.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Ghulam Hassan
8	Mohammad Shahab Saqib	-do-	-do-	2009	Genetic diversity for black point (Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Kessler infection in spring wheat germplasm of Pakistan.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Farhatullah
9	Sajid Ali	-do-	-do-	2008	Adult plant resistance to stripe rust in wheat.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Hidayat Ur Rehman
10	Zeeshan Gul	-do-	-do-	2006	Studies on incidence of Black point in different wheat cultivars and its effect on seed germination and seedling vigor.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Shaukat Hussain
11	Maria Ahmad	M.Sc	Peshawar University.	2019	In-vitro control of apple scab fungus using Azadirachta indica (Neem) extract.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Sumaira Afzal
12	Zwili Huma	M.Sc	Abasin University Peshawar	2019	In-vitro control of apple scab fungus using local Mentha (Mint) extract.	-do-
13	Tamana Gul	M.Sc	Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar	2018	Variability of field derived apple scab isolates and efficacy of Allium sativum (Garlic) extract for their control.	-do-
14	Najeebullah	M.Sc	The University of Agriculture, Peshawar	2013	Symptom based diagnostics of black point and screening of naturally infected wheat collections from Swat.	-do-	Prof. Dr. Shaukat Hussain
15	Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah	M.Sc	-do-	2007	Incidence of seedborne mycoflora of oil yielding brassica genotypes.	-do-	-do-
16	Mohammad Shahab Saqib	M.Sc	-do-	2006	Genotypic variability for Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Kessler in bread wheat	-do-	Prof. Dr. Fida Muhammad
17	Hina Fayyaz	M.Sc	-do-	2006	Evaluation of wheat cultivars for Karnal bunt (Tillecia indica) resistance under natural field conditions	-do-	Prof. Dr. Iftikhar Hussain Khalil
18	Waseem Khan	M.Sc	-do-	2006	Studies on virulence pattern of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici and effect of single host genes on yellow rust development and agronomic characters of wheat	-do-	Prof. Dr. Shaukat Hussain
19	Sajid Ali	M.Sc	-do-	2006	Preliminary assessment for slow yellow rusting (Puccinia striiformis west. tritici) in novel wheat breeding lines.	-do-	-do-

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