New genes conferring resistance to Asian soybean rust: allelic testing for the Rpp2 and Rpp4 loci

The objective of this study was to conduct allelic tests including crosses between a group of rust resistant genotypes from Embrapa’s soybean germplasm collection and PI 230970 and PI 459025, which carry the Rpp2 and Rpp4 genes, respectively. Asian Soybean rust (ASR) caused by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi has resulted in signifi cant yield losses and concern among Brazilian farmers. Until recently, there were four resistance genes (Rpp1 through Rpp4) described in the literature, but only Rpp2 and Rpp4 are still effective in Brazil. Twenty-six sources of resistance to P. pachyrhizi were crossed with PI 230970 and PI 459025 (Rpp2 and Rpp4 gene sources, respectively) and plants of their F2 generations were infected with a suspension containing 2.5x10 spores per milliliter and assessed in a greenhouse after 20 days, for the presence of resistant (RB) or susceptible (TAN) lesions. Chi-square tests were applied to investigate the hypotheses of independent or allelic resistance gene segregations. ASR resistant genes derived from PI 197182, PI 230971 and PI 417125 did not segregate in crosses with PI 230970, which indicates that these genotypes have a single resistance gene in the Rpp2 locus. Crosses with the other 23 genotypes resulted in segregating populations, suggesting that their resistance genes do not belong to Rpp2 or Rpp4 loci.