Ug99 wheat stem rust
Roya del tallo del trigo Ug99
- Date
- 1998-1999 · confidence high
- Place
- Kabale region, southwestern Uganda, Uganda
- Credited to
- Zacharias Pretorius and a team from CIMMYT and Ugandan researchers
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A race of Puccinia graminis that overcame the Sr31 resistance gene, protection used in wheat for three decades. Its appearance raised fears of a global epidemic and triggered the search for new resistance genes.
It was detected in 1998 and identified in 1999 (name Ug99: Uganda 1999); the characterisation paper is from 2000. The location of the first record is not well documented and the Kabale region is given as an approximation.
What it led to
- the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (2005)
- a varietal screening platform at Njoro (Kenya)
- stronger surveillance of wheat pathogens from East Africa