Molecular markers related to leaf rust: An efficient tool for screening genetic materials in wheat’s breeding programs

Wheat is the main food of near 40 percent of the world's population. Due to the growing population of the world and global climate changes, increasing the yield performance of field crops is one of the most important challenges facing plant breeders. Leaf rust is one of the most important fungal diseases that dramatically reduces wheat production. In general, the management of fungal diseases depends mostly on several factors such as tracing virulent pathogens, genetic and pathological diversity in the pathogen population, production of resistant cultivars, and development of resistance genes in different epidemiological regions. Due to the complexity and time-consuming stages for improving resistant wheat cultivars to a specific disease by traditional methods, the employment of molecular marker-assisted selection as one of the powerful tools in increasing the efficiency, accuracy, and speed of breeding programs for disease resistance is of particular importance. Using molecular markers, breeders will be able to produce improved cultivars containing resistance genes against various diseases, including leaf rust (Lr genes), with greater speed and accuracy. In this study, our attempt is centered on discussing the most important loci controlling resistance to wheat leaf rust disease and corresponding molecular markers associated with identified Lr genes.