Unlocking wheat landrace potential to improve resilience in response to major wheat rust resistance breakdown (NICHOLSON_J26CASE)

Wheat rusts are a continual global threat to wheat production, with the potential to cause total crop loss in untreated susceptible varieties. Wheat yellow rust – caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) – is the most damaging of the three wheat rusts in the UK. In late May 2025, new Pst isolates were detected in the UK with the ability to overcome resistance conferred by the yellow rust resistance gene, Yr15. Due to the widescale deployment of this single resistance gene in UK wheat varieties, a large portion of UK wheat acreage is now vulnerable to Pst infection. This has created an urgent need to identify new diverse sources of Pst resistance that can be immediately incorporated into the UK wheat breeding pipeline.

We recently screened the geographically and phenotypically diverse A.E. Watkins collection of wheat landraces and identified a subset that are resistant to these emergent Yr15-breaking Pst isolates. The aim of this studentship is to explore and pinpoint new sources of Pst resistance within these Watkins landraces. The student will work in partnership between JIC and KWS UK to: (i) map novel Pst resistance within the Watkins landrace collection, (ii) identify regions in the wheat genome harbouring novel Pst resistance, (iii) validate these genomic regions and candidate Pst resistance genes identified in the Watkins landraces, and (iv) enhance the utility of genetic markers for tracking Pst resistance genes in breeding programmes. With the overarching goal to support diversification of resistance sources within the UK breeding pipeline.

This iCASE studentship will provide a unique opportunity to join a collaborative research project between the Nicholson and Saunders Labs at JIC and develop skills in plant resistance mapping, wheat genetics, plant pathology, and computational biology. The student will also spend a minimum of 3 months at KWS UK.