Common Beans Gain Rust Resistant Genes

New cultivars of common beans have two or more genes for resistance to the rust fungi, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. Talo Pastor-Corrales, an ARS plant pathologist in Beltsville, MD, says most of the cultivars also have Ur-11, which is considered the most effective rust-resistance gene in the world.

Pastor-Corrales and his colleagues at the University of Nebraska and Colorado State University opted to use this multi-gene strategy in response to the diversity of strains of the bean rust pathogen. Lately, virulent new races of rust that have overcome the Ur-3 resistance gene appeared in Michigan and North Dakota.

For more information, go to www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/100604.htm.

Source: USDA ARS