Compositions and methods for enhancing the resistance of wheat and barley plants to wheat stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici are provided. The compositions comprise nucleic acid molecules encoding resistance (R) gene products and variants thereof and plants, seeds, and plant cells comprising such nucleic acid molecules. The methods for enhancing the resistance of wheat and barley plants to wheat stripe rust comprise introducing a nucleic acid molecule encoding an R gene product into a wheat or barley plant cell. Additionally provided are methods for using the wheat and barley plants in agriculture to limit wheat stripe rust.
