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Analysis of 46 newly sequenced or re-sequenced Tausch’s goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii) accessions establishes the origin of the bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) D genome from genetically and geographically discrete Ae. tauschii subpopulations.

Exploring the diversity of the wild progenitor of the wheat D subgenome allows for rapid trait discovery.

Gene cloning in wheat has long been hampered by its exceptionally large and complex genome, and long life cycle. Here, the authors report an optimized, high-throughput disease resistance gene cloning workflow and demonstrate its application in cloning stem rust resistance gene Sr6.

Stb15 provides resistance to Septoria tritici blotch in wheat and encodes a G-type lectin receptor-like kinase. The three cloned Stb genes, which are effective against different pathogen isolates, encode diverse receptor-like kinases with extracellular domains potentially involved in sugar binding.

Aegilops sharonensis is a wild diploid relative of wheat. Here, the authors assemble the genome of Ae. sharonensis and use the assembly as an aid to clone the Ae. sharonensis-derived stem rust resistance gene Sr62 in the allohexaploid genome of wheat.

Genomic and phenomic screens of 827 wheat landraces from the A. E. Watkins collection provide insight into the wheat population genetic background, unlocking many agronomic traits and revealing haplotypes that could potentially be used to improve modern wheat cultivars.

Leaf rust and stripe rust of wheat are two important fungal diseases of cultivated wheat and they are caused by infection of different pathogens. Here, the authors report the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) protein encoding gene Yr87/Lr85 confers resistance to both diseases.

The wheat powdery mildew resistance gene Pm4 also confers resistance to wheat blast carrying the effector AVR-Rmg8. The authors propose the Pm4f allele as the most effective allele to deploy in Bangladesh and Zambia.

The genomic organization and origin of the avenacin biosynthetic gene cluster remain unknown. Here, the authors assemble the genome of diploid oat Avena strigosa, reveal the structure and organization of the consecutive genes, characterize the last two missing pathway steps, and investigate the origin of the pathway in cereals.

Among all wheat rust resistance genes, SR9 has the largest number of alleles. Here, the authors use gene cloning, complementation and comparative genetics to resolve the relationship among Sr9 alleles, confirm their allelic identities, and show that a single amino acid change leads to resistance to Ug99.

The resistance gene Sr43, which was crossed into bread wheat from the wild grass Thinopyrum elongatum, encodes an unusual protein kinase fusion protein that confers wheat stem rust resistance.

Stem rust is an important disease of wheat and resistance present in some cultivars can be suppressed by the SuSr-D1 locus. Here the authors show that SuSr-D1 encodes a subunit of the Mediator Complex and that nonsense mutations are sufficient to abolish suppression and confer stem rust resistance.

This study identifies two genes that are important for protecting wheat against blast fungus, a pathogen that also infects related grasses. This work helps identify potential strategies for breeding wheat with improved resistance to this damaging fungus.

The authors apply state-of-the-art genomic approaches to characterize a novel late blight resistance gene in a wild Solanaceae. This gene, when expressed in cultivated potato, confers a broad and robust resistance to many Phytophthora infestans isolates.

The tall wheat grass-derived stem rust resistance genes Sr26 and Sr61 are among a few ones that are effective to all current dominant races of stem rust, including Ug99. Here, the authors show that the two genes are present in a small non-recombinogenic segment but encode two unrelated NLR proteins.

The genes underlying stripe rust host specificity between wheat and barley remain unknown. Here, the authors report that Rps6, Rps7 and Rps8 determine host species specificity in barley at different stages of the pathogen lifecycle and the barley powdery mildew immune receptor Mla8 and Rps7 are the same gene.

A chromosome-scale genome assembly of rye inbred line ‘Lo7’ provides insights into its incomplete genetic isolation from wild relatives, mechanisms of genome structural evolution and the yield benefits of rye–wheat introgressions.

Fully enclosed, controlled-environment growth chambers can accelerate plant development. Such ‘speed breeding’ reduces generation times to accelerate crop breeding and research programmes, and can integrate with other modern crop breeding technologies.

The treasure trove of disease resistance genes present in wild relatives of domesticated crops is rapidly discovered using association genetics and enrichment sequencing.

A method for rapid cloning of plant disease-resistance genes could provide sustainable, genetic solutions to crop pests and pathogens in place of agrichemicals.

This protocol describes procedures for speed-breeding approaches using growth cabinets and LED-supplemented glasshouses. The approaches can be used to accelerate crop research and are compatible with a wide variety of crops.

Combining fungal-resistance genes into a single cassette enables the generation of highly resistant wheat lines.

Development of next-generation crops will be enabled by combining state-of-the-art technologies with speed breeding.

Clare Lewis et al. report the first identification in nearly 60 years of a cultivated wheat plant infected with the fungal pathogen Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici (wheat stem rust) in the United Kingdom. They find that only 20% of UK wheat varieties are resistant to this strain and urge growers to resume resistance breeding programs.

Resequencing of a core collection of tef, an indigenous cereal, identifies genetic redundancy and candidate genes for grain colour, size and metabolite content variation.

Soybean is made resistant to Asian soybean rust using a gene cloned from pigeonpea, showing that legumes may contain a reservoir of disease-resistance genes.

Delorean et al., along with colleagues from the Open Wild Wheat Consortium, present an analysis of Aegilops tauschii genomes to investigate the origins of the Glu-D1 gene in modern wheats. They discover an abundance of novel Glu-D1 gene alleles that could serve as a reservoir for generating higher quality wheat varieties. This is a companion to the Consortium paper which is available in Nature Biotechnology.

Crop fungal diseases pose great threats to global food security. This study isolates and characterizes three BED-domain-containing immune receptor genes from hexaploid wheat that confer resistance to yellow rust with distinct recognition specificities.