Wheat and barley rusts have the potential to cause significant production losses in Australia. Although fungicides control rusts, they do not provide complete control in highly susceptible cultivars. Genetic resistance therefore remains the foundation of integrated rust control.

This project exploits and builds on the previous achievements and investments by continuing and expanding efforts to find new rust resistance genes to achieve durable control: to leaf rust, stem rust and stripe rust in wheat and to the exotic stripe rust pathogen in barley.

The work will allow:

• breeders with access to and utilising closely linked molecular markers for cloned genes conferring APR to develop new varieties with improved rust resistance
• breeders and pre-breeders using new knowledge and understanding of the value of single and multiple APR genes across different genetic backgrounds and environments to generate new varieties with durable resistance
• breeders access to germplasm and marker resources for exotic rust types to ensure preparedness of the industry in the event of an incursion.