DNA fingerprinting of reference strains of Puccinia striiformtis f. sp. tritici in China

The rapid development of molecular biology resulted in the wide application of popula-tion genetics theory to plant pathology.It is the development of efficient molecular DNAmarker systems that gives a great insight into the population genetics of a number offungal plant pathogens such as rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea,late blight fungusPhytophthora infestans,barley powdery mildew fungus Erysiphe graminis f.sp.hordeiand wheat blotch fungus Septoria tritici.The knowledge on population biology of plantpathogens is essential for screening and identification of disease resistance genes,for devel-