Identification of genetic resources of field resistance to barley leaf rust in local germplasm of cultivated barley

The barley leaf rust has been important in recent years in Iran. In order to identify the genetic resources of resistance to this disease, 207 Iranian barley landraces were studied. The germplasms were investigated at the field of Iraqi-Mahalleh research station in Gorgan as the disease hotspot under natural incidence over three years. The results showed that four genotypes including KC18638 and KC18643 from Golestan and KC19087 and KC 19093 from Gilan expressed immunity response in all three years of the experiment and 31 accessions were immune in two years. The results of principal component analysis in three years showed that 90.69% of the variations in the data were justified by the first three principal components. The results of this study indicated the possibility of racial variation in the studied disease hotspot. These findings show the importance of tracing the changes in the disease hotspot which is necessary for planning, breeding and cultivation of cultivars with effective resistance. Also, the resistant genotypes identified in this research can be used as genetic resources of leaf rust resistance in breeding programs.