Mursel Catal

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is one of the most valuable oilseed crops in the world. It is not only an oil seed crop and feed for livestock, but also valuable mineral and vitamins sources for the human diet. The soybean yield is affected by various biotic and abiotic stress factors in all growing seasons. Diseases are one of the most significant biotic factors that reduce soybean growth and yield. Fungi are important pathogens affecting yield and quality by attacking plants during the growth period and after harvest. This study was conducted to detect and identify the seed-borne fungi associated with the soybean seed. From this context, 150 soybean seeds were randomly chosen from the experimental fields of Akdeniz University in Antalya province of Turkey. These seeds were sterilized with 70% ethanol for 1 min, followed by 10% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min and then rinsed with sterile water and then placed in Petri plates by using the agar plate method. A total of four seed-borne fungi species namely Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp. and Fusarium spp. were isolated from the soybean seeds. Additionally, Genomic DNAs of these fungal species were extracted and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA was amplified with the ITS-1 and ITS-4 primers using a thermal cycler. After sequencing of amplified products, the sequences were aligned. BLASTn analysis of each sequence showed that the sequences of the fungi had the similarity (99%) to the fungal isolates deposited in the GenBank.

The gene Yr5 in wheat has generally been known to confer resistance to Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici races worldwide. However, a few reports indicated that some isolates of the stripe rust pathogen were virulent on the wheat genotypes with Yr5 in India, Australia, and China (Nagarajan 1986; Wellings and McIntosh 1990; Zhang et al. 2020). In April 2020, a stripe rust infection was observed on Triticum spelta 'Album' (TSA), the Yr5 donor, provided by Turkey Seed Gene Bank in a wheat breeding field at the experimental station of Akdeniz University in the Antalya province of Turkey. The sample was tested on the seedlings of the Yr single-gene lines in the Avocet S (AvS) background including Yr5 near-isogenic line (AvSYr5NIL), TSA, and susceptible bread wheat variety 'Morocco' according to the procedure reported by Wan et al. (2014), and found to be highly virulent on Morocco with infection type (IT) 9 and virulent on AvSYr5NIL and TSA with IT 7. To confirm this novel finding, single-pustule isolates derived from this sample were obtained from TSA and re-tested on the differentials and TSA. The Yr5-virulent isolate yielded similar infection types on these plants further verifying previous results. The single-pustule isolates were determined to be avirulent (Avr) (IT 0 to 6) on AvSYr1NIL, AvSYr8NIL, AvSYr9NIL, AvSYr10NIL, AvSYr32NIL, and AvSYr43NIL and virulent (Vr) (IT 7 to 9) on AvSYr5NIL, AvSYr6NIL, AvSYr7NIL, AvSYr17NIL, AvSYr24NIL, AvSYr27NIL, AvSYr44NIL, AvSYrSpNIL, and TSA. The isolates were identified as a new race and temporarily named TRVR20-5 based on its Avr/Vr pattern. Furthermore, to confirm the presence of Yr5, the genomic DNA of fresh leaves of AvSYr5NIL and TSA used in the virulence testing were isolated using NucleoSpin Plant II (Macherey-Nagel, Germany) according to the manufacturer's procedure. The genomic DNA samples were amplified with the primers STS-7 (5'-GTACAATTCACCTAGAGT-3') and STS-8 (5'-GCAAGTTTTCTCCCTATT-3') (Chen et al. 2003) using a thermal cycler (T-100, BioRad, USA), and the resulting PCR products were digested with DpnII and visualized on an agarose gel. AvSYr5NIL and TSA had the fragment linked to the resistance allele (308 bp) whereas AvS and Morocco had the fragment linked to the susceptible allele (181 bp). Thus, both wheat genotypes were confirmed to carry Yr5, and the new Pst race virulent to Yr5 was confirmed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a Pst race virulent to Yr5 in Turkey, where stripe rust epidemics have occured in 2 out of every 5 years with 1-5% crop losses in over 25% of the wheat growing areas (Chen 2020). In a nutshell, monitoring the Pst races virulent to Yr5 with a potential to cause devastating epidemics worldwide is crucial due to the fact that international wheat breeding programs have been using Yr5 to develop wheat cultivars with resistance to stripe rust.

Stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is a devastating disease of wheat in Turkey and worldwide. This pathogen can overcome known resistance genes and negatively affect the wheat production. The objectives of this study were to determine the virulence patterns of wheat stripe rust isolates collected from the coastal areas (Aegean and Mediterranean regions) of Turkey, and to examine the genetic diversity of the pathogen populations by simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker analysis. The majority of the isolates collected were virulent at various frequencies on the resistance genes Yr1 (50%), Yr6 (100%), Yr7 (78%), Yr8 (50%), Yr9 (84%), Yr10 (25%), Yr17 (38%), Yr24 (22%), Yr27 (31%), Yr32 (22%), Yr43 (47%), Yr44 (6%), YrSp (41%), YrTr1 (6%), and avirulent on Yr5 and Yr15. Based on the analysis of virulence, all isolates were determined as 25 races and clustered into six virulence groups (VGs). In contrast, the isolates clustered into four molecular groups (MGs) based on genotypic data. All four MGs were found in Aegean region of Turkey, while only three MGs (MG1, MG2 and MG3) were found in the Mediterranean region of the country. Additionally, analysis of molecular variance indicated that 80.9% of genetic variation was found within regions and 19.1% was found between the regions. The results suggest that interregional migration of the pathogen was high. The data can be helpful for the management of stripe rust and understanding the population structure and migration of Pst in Turkey.

A large seed size in the kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is important in the market not only due to its high price but also for its superior seedling vigor. The double-podded chickpea has a considerable yield and stability advantage over the single-podded chickpea. The study aimed at (i) integrating extra-large-seeded and double-podded traits in the kabuli chickpea, (ii) increasing variation by transgressive segregations and (iii) estimating the heritability of the 100-seed weight along with important agro-morphological traits in F₂ and F₃ populations. For these objectives, the large-seeded chickpea, Sierra, having a single pod and unifoliolate leaves, was crossed with the small-seeded CA 2969, having double pods and imparipinnate leaves. The inheritance pattern of the extra-large-seeded trait was polygenically controlled by partial dominant alleles. Transgressive segregations were found for all agro-morphological traits. Some progeny with 100-seed weights of ≥55 g and two pods had larger seed sizes than those of the best parents. As outputs of the epistatic effect of the double-podded gene in certain genetic backgrounds, three or more flowers or pods were found in some progeny. Progeny having imparipinnate leaves or two or more pods should be considered in breeding, since they had higher numbers of pods and seeds per plant and seed yields than their counterparts.

In the early 2000s, spruce trees in Michigan began displaying basal needle drop and branch death that slowly progressed upward, symptoms of what we call spruce decline. A survey in 2013 revealed that spruce decline was common throughout Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, and Diaporthe was the most likely pathogen causing the cankers associated with these symptoms. Greenhouse inoculation studies completed Koch’s postulates, confirming that Diaporthe could cause cankers that cause needle loss and branch death. The five different Diaporthe haplotypes isolated from symptomatic branches during the survey differed in virulence. Haplotypes 2, 4, and 5 were more virulent, and differed from each other by only one or two base pairs using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and did not differ using the β-tubulin (TUB) gene. These haplotypes were unresolved phylogenetically. Haplotypes 1 and 3 were weakly virulent to avirulent on multiple spruce taxa, and fell into a resolved Diaporthe eres clade. Spruce taxa varied in susceptibility, with Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) the most susceptible, followed by Norway (P. abies), then white spruce (P. glauca). Spruce taxa that were much less susceptible were Black Hills (P. glauca var. densata), Serbian (P. omorika), and Meyer spruce (P. meyeri). We demonstrate that one or more Diaporthe species is causing cankers on declining spruce in Michigan, and these cankers elicit symptoms similar to the branch death expressed by declining spruce in the landscape. Future work will focus on further characterizing Diaporthe to species, and determining biotic and abiotic stressors that may predispose spruce trees to express decline symptoms.