ABSTRACT
Barley (Hordeum vulgare 2x = 14, HH) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L., 2x = 42, AABBDD), being a major source of animal feed and a staple human food, play a central role in agriculture (Oerke and Dehne, 2004). Under agricultural conditions, these crops are constantly challenged by abiotic and biotic stresses that reduce farm-level yield below the genetically determined potential. Among these constraints, fungal diseases reduce yield by 15% (Oerke and Dehne, 2004). Powdery mildew pathogens are among the most important cereal disease-causing organisms, and they can result in significant losses in yield and reduction of grain quality, posing a great challenge for barley and wheat agricultural production systems (Dean et al., 2012). In response to the need to counter this disease, breeding for quantitative and race-specific resistance and fungicide treatments have been the main means to control cereal mildews (Singh and Rajaram, 2002). In the past decade, powdery mildew resistance breeding has been increasingly supported by genomic and high-throughput genotyping technologies mostly on the host side, but there are emerging
Diseases affecting wheat and barley: powdery mildew Diseases affecting wheat and barley: powdery mildew
applications on the pathogen side as well. These approaches have been implemented to accelerate the identification, selection and introduction of novel resistance sources in breeding programmes, as well as to gain more insight into basic pathogen evolution and population diversity.
