Diversity and Sources of Multiple Disease Resistance in Hordeum spontaneum

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Abstract
Hordeum spontaneum, the progenitor of cultivated barley, is known to be a rich source of disease resistance genes. The objective of this study was to assess the diversity of H. spontaneum accessions from Israel and Jordan for their reaction to six fungal pathogens of importance to cultivated barley in the United States and Canada. Overall, a high level of macro-scale (across collection sites) and micro-scale (within a collection site) diversity for disease reaction was found in the 116 accessions of H. spontaneum evaluated at the seedling stage. Additionally, genetic heterozygosity for resistance loci was common in H. spontaneum. The frequency of resistance in accessions from Jordan and Israel was high for Septoria speckled leaf blotch (77 and 98%, respectively), leaf rust (70 and 90%), net blotch (72 and 68%), and powdery mildew (58 and 70%); intermediate for spot blotch (53 and 46%); and low for stem rust (2 and 26%). The level of disease resistance in H. spontaneum was not strongly correlated ...