Wheat tandem kinases provide insights on disease-resistance gene flow and host–parasite co-evolution

Abstract

Stripe (yellow) rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a destructive disease of wheat spread globally. Wild emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides; WEW) is known as a source for novel Pst resistance genes (R-gene), but our knowledge on wheat-Pst co-evolution in natural populations is limited. Yr15 is a WEW (accession G25) gene, which confers a broad-spectrum resistance to Pst, and encodes a tandem kinase-pseudokinase protein designated as WTK1. Exon–intron comparisons of multiple WTK1 homoeologous and paralogous copies scattered in allopolyploid wheat genomes enabled us to develop functional molecular markers (FMMs), which were used for population genetic study. The functional allele (Wtk1) was absent in a worldwide collection of 513 wheat cultivars, except for 32 introgression lines with Yr15 from G25, as well as in 84% of the 382 tested WEW accessions collected across the Fertile Crescent. Yr15 was found to be distributed along a narrow axis from Mt Carmel to the Anti-Lebanon Mountains ridge, mostly at elevations above c. 500 m, where the climatic conditions are favorable for disease development, therefore providing insights on gene flow and host–parasite co-evolution in WEW natural habitats. Moreover, the worldwide absence of Wtk1 in cultivated wheat and in WEW natural populations from southeast Turkey, where wheat is believed to have been domesticated, proposes that Yr15 was rather left behind, than lost during domestication. Our results highlight the importance of conservation of WEW populations in their natural habitats for discovery of novel R-genes and studies of host–parasite co-evolution.