POTENTIAL USE OF DOUBLED HAPLOID LINES FOR THE SCREENING OF RESISTANCE TO YELLOW RUST (PUCCINIA-STRIIFORMIS) IN HEXAPLOID WHEAT

Doubled haploid lines derived from anther culture of two Iranian sprin g wheat genotypes 'Ghods' susceptible and '9106' resistant to yellow r ust in Iranian field conditions, and their F-1 hybrids were used in th is study. Seedlings of 36 doubled haploid lines, selected out of 96 ac cording to their agronomic traits and the two parental genotypes were inoculated with eight races of yellow rust. The parental genotypes ('G hods' and '9106') were segregating for some of the races but their dou bled haploid lines were either resistant or susceptible to them. 'Ghod s' was susceptible to three of the races studied but three doubled hap loid lines derived from it were resistant to them. Five selected doubl ed haploids from the '9106' genotype and six from F-1 hybrid plants we re resistant to all eight races tested. After further investigations i n Iranian held conditions it was found that some of these lines can be used as donor genotypes for resistance to yellow rust in wheat breedi ng programmes. Use of these genotypes should be possible if the French yellow rust races used for selection also represent the dominant race s in Iran. It can be concluded that anther culture provides an efficie nt method for fixing genes of resistance to yellow rust and desirable doubled haploids from F-1 plants can be derived.