Two indigenous Berberis species from Spain were confirmed functional alternate hosts of the yellow rust fungus Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici

Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici (Pst), which causes yellow (or stripe) rust on wheat, is a macrocyclic and heteroecious fungus. In this study, we investigated whether Berberis vulgaris subsp. seroi and B. vulgaris subsp. australis, which are indigenous in Spain, may serve as alternate hosts for Pst. Wheat leaves bearing telia of an isolate of Pst were harvested and used to inoculate plants of both barberry subspecies. Pycnia were observed on the adaxial side of the leaves from 10 days after inoculation (dai). Following successful fertilisation, aecia were observed on the abaxial side of the leaves from 16 dai. At 27 dai, barberry leaves bearing aecia were detached and used to inoculate susceptible wheat seedlings of cultivar ‘Morocco’. Uredinia were observed on wheat seedlings from 12 days after aeciospore exposure. Eighty-three single lesions were recovered from individual wheat leaves, of which 43 were genotyped using 19 Pst simple sequence repeat markers (SSR). In total, 19 multilocus genotypes (MLGs) were identified among the 43 progeny isolates. The SSR genotyping confirmed that all 43 isolates were derived from the parental isolate. Seven heterozygous SSR markers showed segregation among the progenies, whereas none of the 12 homozygous markers resulted in segregation. These results demonstrated that B. vulgaris subspp. seroi and australis can serve as alternate hosts for the yellow rust fungus, which may result in novel virulence combinations that can have a detrimental impact on wheat production. Although Pst has not been detected on these barberry species in nature, this study highlights the importance of rust surveillance in barberry areas where suitable conditions for completion of the sexual life cycle may be present