Compositions and methods and for enhancing the resistance of wheat plants to wheat stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis 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 a wheat plant to wheat stem rust comprise introducing a nucleic acid molecule encoding an R gene product into a wheat plant cell. Additionally provided are methods for using the wheat plants in agriculture to limit wheat stem rust.
