Rusts are among economically important fungal diseases of cereal crops worldwide. Stem rust is one of the diseases that cause yield and quality loss to barley and wheat. Ug99, new race of wheat stem rust first discovered in Uganda in 1999, causes yield loss of ca. 25%. Even though the disease was a serious challenge in East Africa, it is predicted that there is a good chance for the disease to spread to other parts of the world. According to preliminary studies, barley is also susceptible to Ug99.  The focus of my research would be screening wild barley and world barley collections against stem rust race Ug99, characterizing sources of resistance, and mapping effective resistance genes. The project would yield first-hand information to alleviate the predicted losses from the epidemic. I would also like to characterize Ug99 at the molecular level to look for potential derivatives.

Penmetsa, R.V., Rosen, B., Farmer A., Garcia, N.C.,  Gao, J., Woodward, J., Mamo, B., Sarma, B.K., Datta, S., Garzon, L., Patil, B., Vail, S., Yuan, M., Varshney, R., May, G., He, G., Bruening, G., Cook, D.R. 2009. Comparative genomics of the papilionoid legume subfamily. Plant and Animal Genome XVII Abstracts, Jan 10-14, San Diego, CA, W104.

Nayak, S., Mamo, B., Varghese, N., Penmetsa, R.V., Farmer A., Woodward, J., Gao, J., Hoisington, D., May, G., Bruening, G., Varshney, R., Cook, D. 2008. BAC-end associated microsatellites in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata): a resource for genetic and physical mapping. Plant and Animal Genome XVI Abstracts, Jan 12-16, San Diego, CA, P382.

Penmetsa, R.V., Rosen, B.D., Sarma, B.K., Garcia, N.C., Mamo, B.E., Woodward, J., Gao J., He, G., Nayak, S., Varghese, N., Datta, S., Patil, B., Zhu, H., Steiner, S., Framer, A., Varshney, R.K., Bruening, G., Cook, D.R. 2008. From model systems to crop species: using genomics to advance breeding and biotechnology in legumes. Plant and Animal Genome XVI Abstracts, Jan 12-16, San Diego, CA, W130.

Penmetsa, R.V., Gao J., Sarma, B.K., Garcia, N.C., Rosen, B., Varshney, R.K., Bruening, G., Cook, D.R. 2008. Genome organization and diversity within a legume species as assessed by two DNA marker types: conserved orthologous sequence (COS) and simple sequence repeat (SSR). Plant and Animal Genome XVI Abstracts, Jan 12-16, San Diego, CA, P384. (My name was omitted in error)

Comparative genomics of the papilionoid legume subfamily. – (Poster)

BAC-end associated microsatellites in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata): a resource for genetic and physical mapping. – (Poster)

From model systems to crop species: using genomics to advance breeding and biotechnology in legumes. – (Poster)

Genome organization and diversity within a legume species as assessed by two DNA marker types: conserved orthologous sequence (COS) and simple sequence repeat (SSR). – (Poster)