Breeding wheat with durable resistance to the fungal pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), a major threat to cereal production, is challenging due to the rapid evolution of pathogen virulence. Increased durability and broad-spectrum resistance can be achieved by introducing more than one resistance gene, but combining numerous unlinked genes by breeding is laborious. Here we generate polygenic Pgt resistance by introducing a transgene cassette of five resistance genes into bread wheat as a single locus and show that at least four of the five genes are functional. These wheat lines are resistant to aggressive and highly virulent Pgt isolates from around the world and show very high levels of resistance in the field. The simple monogenic inheritance of this multigene locus greatly simplifies its use in breeding. However, a new Pgt isolate with virulence to several genes at this locus suggests gene stacks will need strategic deployment to maintain their effectiveness.

培育对真菌病原体Puccinia graminis f具有持久抗性的小麦。sp。tritici ( Pgt ) 是谷物生产的主要威胁，由于病原体毒力的快速演变，它具有挑战性。通过引入一个以上的抗性基因可以提高耐久性和广谱抗性，但是通过育种将众多未链接的基因组合起来是费力的。在这里，我们通过将五个抗性基因的转基因盒作为单个基因座引入面包小麦中来产生多基因Pgt抗性，并表明五个基因中至少有四个是有功能的。这些小麦品系对侵袭性和高毒性Pgt具有抗性来自世界各地的分离株，并在该领域表现出非常高的抗药性。这种多基因位点的简单单基因遗传极大地简化了其在育种中的使用。然而，一种新的Pgt分离物对该位点的几个基因具有毒力，这表明基因堆栈需要战略部署以保持其有效性。