The role of the Global Rust Reference Center for tracking variability and spread of wheat rust fungi
Julian Rodriguez Algaba: Aarhus University
<div>The Global Rust Reference Center (GRRC, wheatrust.org) was established in 2008 upon request from CIMMYT and ICARDA and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative. GRRC can receive and diagnose alive samples of rust infected wheat from any country year round. So far, samples of yellow (stripe) rust (<em>P. striiformis</em>) and stem rust (<em>P. graminis</em>) from epidemic sites in Africa, Asia and Europe have main priority. GRRC is hosting the Wheat Rust Toolbox (WRT), a database driven information and communication system for global rust surveillance and pathogen genotypic and phenotypic data. Molecular genotyping is based on alive as well as dead (unrecovered) samples, whereas epidemiological important traits like virulence, aggressiveness, temperature adaptation, and in-vivo diagnosis for disease resistance, is based on alive, purified isolates. WRT is supporting BGRI institutions by web tools, maps and charts, which are integrated in several web portals, e.g. RustTracker and EuroWheat. The sharing of data and rapid release of results are in line with the European Open Science Cloud agenda reflecting the needs for timely early-warning of new epidemic outbreaks or emergence of new pathogen variants. The rapid spread of aggressive and high-temperature adapted strains of yellow rust, and emergence and spread of stem rust Ug99, and even more virulent races, have demonstrated that coordinated, international efforts are needed to mitigate the escalating threat of wheat rust epidemics worldwide.</div>
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