The demand for cereal grains as a main source of energy continues to increase due to the rapid increase in world population. The leaf rust diseases of cereals cause significant yield losses, posing challenges for global food security. The deployment of resistance genes has long been considered as the most effective and sustainable way to control cereal leaf rust diseases. While genetic resistance has reduced the impact of these diseases in agriculture, losses still occur due to the ability of the respective rust pathogens to change and render resistance genes ineffective plus the slow pace at which resistance genes are discovered and characterized. This article highlights novel recently developed strategies based on advances in genome sequencing that have accelerated gene isolation by overcoming the complexity of cereal genomes. The leaf rust resistance genes cloned so far from wheat and barley belong to various protein families, including nucleotide binding site/leucine-rich repeat receptors and transporters. We review recent studies that are beginning to reveal the defense mechanisms conferred by the leaf rust resistance genes identified to date in cereals and their roles in either pattern-triggered immunity or effector-triggered immunity.

由于世界人口的快速增长，对谷物作为主要能源的需求持续增长。谷物的叶锈病导致产量大幅下降，对全球粮食安全构成挑战。长期以来，抗性基因的部署一直被认为是控制谷物叶锈病的最有效和可持续的方法。尽管遗传抗药性已降低了这些疾病对农业的影响，但由于各个锈病病原体改变和使抗性基因失效的能力以及发现和鉴定抗性基因的速度缓慢，仍然造成损失。本文重点介绍了基于基因组测序进展而开发的新颖策略，这些策略通过克服谷物基因组的复杂性而加速了基因分离。到目前为止，从小麦和大麦中克隆的抗叶锈基因属于各种蛋白质家族，包括核苷酸结合位点/富含亮氨酸的重复受体和转运蛋白。我们回顾了最近的研究，这些研究开始揭示迄今在谷物中鉴定出的叶锈病抗性基因所赋予的防御机制，以及它们在模式触发的免疫或效应子触发的免疫中的作用。