Powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), is one of the most damaging foliage diseases of wheat across the world. Aegilops geniculata Roth is a valuable gene resource for enhancing wheat resistance to powdery mildew. This study identified Ae. geniculata accession PI 487224 as immune and PI 487228 as susceptible to powdery mildew. Genetic analysis of the F1, F2, and F2:3 progeny derived from PI 487224 × PI 487228 showed that powdery mildew resistance in PI 487224 was controlled by two independent dominant genes located on two different nonhomologous chromosomes. By combing bulked segregant RNA-Seq, genetic linkage analysis of a single resistance gene segregation population, and marker analysis of a set of 14 wheat-Ae. geniculata chromosome addition lines, one of the resistance genes, temperately designated PmAege7M, was mapped to a 4.9-cM interval flanked by markers STS7-55926 and SNP7-45792/STS7-65911 on the long arm of chromosome 7 Mg of PI 487224, spanning 604.73 to 622.82 Mb on the 7D long arm based on the Ae. tauschii reference genome (Aet_v4.0). The map and closely linked markers of PmAege7M from Ae. geniculata in this study will facilitate the transfer of PmAege7M into common wheat and fine mapping of the gene.
Keywords: Aegilops geniculata; PmAege7M; genetic linkage map; powdery mildew.