A heterogeneous population of Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici developed from randomly mated pycnial infections on Thalictrum speciosissimum was selected for 12 generations on four wheat lines with different resistance genes to determine if unnecessary genes for virulence were deleterious to general levels of fitness in the wheat leaf rust fungus. Diversity of virulence phenotypes, as measured with the Shannon index, declined least in the population selected on the susceptible line Thatcher and most in the population selected on the resistant cultivar Roblin (Lr1, Lr10, Lr13, and Lr34). Phenotypes with virulence to six differential lines predominated in the populations selected on Thatcher, the Thatcher isogenic line containing Lr3ka (TcLr3ka) and TcLr11 [...]
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
JAMES A. KOLMER (1993) studied this question.