Abstract: Wheat stripe (yellow) rust caused by Puccinia striiformis Westend f. sp. tritici Eriks is the most destructive foliar disease of wheat in many areas of China. Epidemics of the disease occurred annually since 1950 and the annual losses of wheat yields due to stripe rust averaged about 1 billion kg. The most severe epidemics occurred in 1950, 1964, 1990 and 2002, which caused yield losses of wheat of 6.0 billion kg, 3.2 billion kg, 2.65 billion kg and 1.4 billion kg, respectively. A great deal of effort has been spent on the epidemiology of wheat stripe rust and strategies for its control in China over the five decades by a teamwork nationwide which involved in widely field surveys and tests on the over-summering and over-wintering areas of P. striiformis f. sp. tritici, inter-regional dispersal of inoculum, virulence of pathogen, resistance of wheat cultivars, and development of the strategies and techniques for the control of the disease. It has been found that wheat stripe rust in China exists a fully epidemic system, and that South of Gansu and Northwest of Sichuan are the most important over-summer areas of P. striiformis f. sp. tritici that act as major sources of inoculum for the autumn-sown wheat in the eastern areas and as a variable zone of rust virulence and wheat cultivar resistance to stripe rust. A set of wheat lines suitable for virulence survey of P. striiformis f. sp. tritici in China has been established and a total of 56 races or pathotypes and their frequencies have been determined from the stripe rust samples collected throughout the country. Based on the epidemiology of wheat stripe rust in China, “Integrated management of wheat stripe rust in over-summering areas to protect wheat safety plantation in the wide winter wheat areas” has been considered as the major strategy of sustainable disease control all over the country. A feasible methodology for the disease forecast with an accuracy of 78% have been put forward，and a series of effective measures for the control of disease has been developed, which include the improving cultivar resistance and reasonably deploying resistance genes to enhance genetic diversity of resistance, changing cultural practices to raise crop diversity., regulating wheat planting date to reduce the amount of inoculum, eradicating volunteer seedlings of wheat, returning land to forestry and pastures instead of wheat and seed-dressing with Triadimefon, etc. In addition, DNA molecular markers closely linked or co-segregating with the resistance genes Yr1, Yr2, Yr5, Yr7, Yr8, Yr9, Yr10, YrSp, YrVir1, YrJu4, YrKy2, YrC591, YrV23 and two sets of wheat near isogenic lines with the resistance genes Yr1, Yr2, Yr5, Yr7, Yr8, Yr9, Yr10, YrSp, YrKy2, YrV23, YrVir1, YrC591, YrJu2 and YrJu4 based on the recurrent parents of Mingxian 169 (winterness) and Taichung 29 (springness) respectively, have been successfully developed. In this paper, it was also proposed as the priority that further survey of inoculum source areas of P. striiformis f. sp. tritici, establishment of early forecast system of pathogen virulence and development of the ecological control measures of disease in the areas of stripe rust inoculum sources etc in the near future.

Key words: Wheat stripe (yellow) rust , Puccinia striiformis West. , Epidemiology , Biodiversity , Control of inoculum source , Disease management