A transmembrane protein confers the Yr26/Yr24/YrCH42/YrG22-mediated stripe rust resistance in wheat.

Shengjie Liu, Keqing Mu, Shuqing Yang, Jianhui Wu, Mingjie Xiang, Xiangrui Cheng, Xiaoting Wang, Yibo Zhang, Ying Zhao, Jiangna Han, Shuo Huang, Haitao Dong, Jiwen Zhao, Fengping Yuan, Raghvendra Sharma, Michael Norman, Peidu Chen, Aizhong Cao, Weijun Zheng, Chunlian Li, Jaroslav Doležel, Kateřina HolušováJ, John Rathjen, Evans Lagudah, Xiaojie Wang, Zhensheng Kang, Sambasivam Periyannan, Dejun Han, Qingdong Zeng

Journal: Nature communications 2026;17(1):

PMID: 42816488

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Abstract

Stripe or yellow rust (YR), caused by Puccinia striiformis Westend. f. sp. tritici (Pst), is a devastating fungal disease of wheat. Here, we report the map-based cloning of Yr26 (synonyms: Yr24, YrCH42, and YrG22), a major stripe rust resistance gene, and its validation by gene silencing, mutation analysis and transgenic complementation. Yr26, which firstly arises in emmer wheat and recently has introgressed into bread wheat, is a newly evolved gene encoding a transmembrane protein. AlphaFold v3.0 predictes a C-terminal four-helical bundle domain that is critical for triggering Ca²⁺-dependent cell death, a hallmark of the hypersensitive response. The cloning of Yr26 offers not only a genetic resource for pyramiding stripe rust resistance genes in wheat breeding but also an opportunity to study host-pathogen co-evolution.

Address: State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, PR China.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, PR China.; Key Laboratory of Plant Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, PR China.; Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, ACT, Australia.; College of Agronomy of Nanjing Agricultural University/State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics & Germplasm Enhancement and Application /JCIC-MCP, Nanjing, PR China.; Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Centre of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics, Olomouc, Czechia.; Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, PR China. [email protected].; Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, ACT, Australia. [email protected].; Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia. [email protected].; School of Science, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Centre for Crop Health, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia. [email protected].; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, PR China. [email protected].; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance and High-Efficiency Production, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, PR China. [email protected].

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-76091-5

MeSH Terms: Triticum, Plant Diseases, Disease Resistance, Puccinia, Basidiomycota, Plant Proteins, Membrane Proteins, Plants, Genetically Modified, Amino Acid Sequence, Cloning, Molecular, Gene Silencing