Advances and Prospects in Wheat Eyespot Research: Contributions from Genetics and Molecular Tools

Eyespot disease caused by the soil-borne facultative fungi Oculimacula yallundae and O. acuformis is the major component of the stem-base disease complex of wheat in temperate regions of the world with a cool and wet climate. In this review, we focus on results of genetic studies concerning both partners of the host-pathogen interaction. This comprises analyses of genetic diversity of the pathogen and identification of particular genes within it, evaluation and screening methods for host resistance, resistance sources and genetics of these resistances, breeding of resistant cultivars in wheat, and application of genetic markers in tagging and tracking of eyespot resistance genes. We also attempt to foresee some of the key issues and developments that may occur in future. The identification of markers tightly linked to eyespot resistance genes is the important research focus opening the door to marker-assisted selection of resistant varieties.