Assessing the effect of elevated CO2 on wheat leaf rust severity: insights from a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiment
4 affiliations
- 1Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI) – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Resistance Research and Stress Tolerance
- 2Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI) – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Crop and Soil Science
- 3Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI) – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Field Crops and Grasland Protection
- 4Department of Plant Breeding, Justus Liebig University
Abstract
Introduction: The continuous increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) concentrations is a major driver of global climate change and may alter plant growth and host–pathogen interactions. Understanding how elevated CO ₂ affects disease development is therefore important for future crop production and resistance screening. This study investigated the effect of elevated CO ₂ on wheat leaf rust ( Puccinia triticina ) in Central European winter wheat genotypes under field conditions.
Methods: Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) field experiments were conducted over two growing seasons, exposing winter wheat to an atmospheric CO ₂ concentration of approximately 600 ppm. Leaf rust development was assessed using the Area Under the Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) and Average Ordinate (AO). Genotypic effects, CO ₂ treatment effects and their interaction were analysed across the tested genotypes and growing seasons.
Results: Elevated CO ₂ was associated with a general tendency towards higher leaf rust severity, although the magnitude of this response varied between growing seasons and genotypes. Genotype effects were highly significant, whereas the genotype × CO ₂ interaction was comparatively weak, providing limited evidence for differential responses among the tested genotypes. Under the conditions of this FACE experiment, the relative ranking of genotypes for leaf rust severity was largely maintained under elevated CO ₂ .
Discussion: The results indicate that elevated CO ₂ may affect the expression of wheat leaf rust resistance, while the relative differences among genotypes remained largely consistent under the tested conditions. However, the limited number of independent CO ₂ treatment environments, particularly following the exclusion of one elevated CO ₂ ring in 2023, restricts the strength of treatment-level inference. The findings should therefore be interpreted as observations specific to the experimental conditions rather than as general evidence for stable leaf rust resistance under elevated atmospheric CO ₂ . Nevertheless, they highlight the importance of considering changing atmospheric CO ₂ concentrations when evaluating and screening disease resistance in future wheat breeding programmes.
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BibTeX
@article{kroßmann2026assessing,
title = {{Assessing the effect of elevated CO2 on wheat leaf rust severity: insights from a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiment}},
author = {Jasper Krößmann and Lars Großhans-Kretschmer and Lisa Waßmann and Bernd Rodemann and Lorenz Kottmann and Sven E. Weber and Rod J. Snowdon and Albrecht Serfling and Andreas Stahl},
journal = {Frontiers in Plant Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpls.2026.1939751},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1939751/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Assessing the effect of elevated CO2 on wheat leaf rust severity: insights from a free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiment
AU - Jasper Krößmann
AU - Lars Großhans-Kretschmer
AU - Lisa Waßmann
AU - Bernd Rodemann
AU - Lorenz Kottmann
AU - Sven E. Weber
AU - Rod J. Snowdon
AU - Albrecht Serfling
AU - Andreas Stahl
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Frontiers in Plant Science
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2026.1939751
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1939751/full
AB - Introduction: The continuous increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) concentrations is a major driver of global climate change and may alter plant growth and host–pathogen interactions. Understanding how elevated CO ₂ affects disease development is therefore important for future crop production and resistance screening. This study investigated the effect of elevated CO ₂ on wheat leaf rust ( Puccinia triticina ) in Central European winter wheat genotypes under field conditions. Methods: Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment (FACE) field experiments were conducted over two growing seasons, exposing winter wheat to an atmospheric CO ₂ concentration of approximately 600 ppm. Leaf rust development was assessed using the Area Under the Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) and Average Ordinate (AO). Genotypic effects, CO ₂ treatment effects and their interaction were analysed across the tested genotypes and growing seasons. Results: Elevated CO ₂ was associated with a general tendency towards higher leaf rust severity, although the magnitude of this response varied between growing seasons and genotypes. Genotype effects were highly significant, whereas the genotype × CO ₂ interaction was comparatively weak, providing limited evidence for differential responses among the tested genotypes. Under the conditions of this FACE experiment, the relative ranking of genotypes for leaf rust severity was largely maintained under elevated CO ₂ . Discussion: The results indicate that elevated CO ₂ may affect the expression of wheat leaf rust resistance, while the relative differences among genotypes remained largely consistent under the tested conditions. However, the limited number of independent CO ₂ treatment environments, particularly following the exclusion of one elevated CO ₂ ring in 2023, restricts the strength of treatment-level inference. The findings should therefore be interpreted as observations specific to the experimental conditions rather than as general evidence for stable leaf rust resistance under elevated atmospheric CO ₂ . Nevertheless, they highlight the importance of considering changing atmospheric CO ₂ concentrations when evaluating and screening disease resistance in future wheat breeding programmes.
SN - 1664-462X
ER -