Wheat stem rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), has threatened wheat and barley production throughout history (Peterson, 2001). Today, it is a principal biotic constraint in most major wheat-growing areas worldwide, with the potential emergence of new virulent strains that overcome varietal resistance a serious global concern (Gill et al., 2020). Such trepidation was substantiated by the appearance of the highly virulent Ug99 race (termed TTKSK) in Uganda in 1998, which dramatically changed the scale of epidemics, consigning 80% of the world's wheat varieties vulnerable to this one race (Singh et al., 2011). Since then, a number