Identification and utilization of new sources of resistance, particularly adult-plant resistance (APR) to leaf rust and yellow rust in wild relatives of wheat are expected to broaden the genetic basis of resistance and its durability. Triticum spelta remains somehow unexploited for rust resistance and besides Yr5 and Lr44 no other catalogued genes derived from this species. CIMMYT germplasm bank retains a relatively small collection of T. spelta from different geographical areas. In the present study, 116 accessions were screened for resistance to leaf rust and yellow rust at seedling stage and for leaf rust at adult plant stage. Molecular markers associated with yellow rust resistance genes at seedling stage and adult plant resistance to leaf rust were also applied. For the leaf rust phenotyping, 112 accessions were susceptible as seedlings to Puccinia triticina race MBJ/SP, two accessions each showed “0;” and “2+” infection types (IT) according to the 0-4 scale . Because Lr44 is ineffective to race used, it is postulated that the two accessions that displayed IT “0;” could carry a distinct resistance gene. The disease severity in percentage and reaction of the accessions ranged from 0 to 20MSS at the adult plant stage in the field trial. Strong leaf tip necrosis (Ltn) was also observed in many accessions. For yellow rust, there were 69 resistant and 48 susceptible T. spelta accessions at the seedling stage, against the most prevalent Mexican P. striiformis tritici isolate MEX14.191. Only 3 of the 69 resistant accessions were positive for the molecular marker Yr5_SPKASP3, diagnostic for resistance gene Yr5 (1). Due to the high frequency of leaf tip necrosis observed at the flag leaf stage, we genotyped these accessions with the molecular markers for Lr34, Lr46, Lr67 and Lr68. All accessions were negative for the Lr34 and Lr67 gene based markers. In contrast, 72 accessions were positive for Lr46 and Lr68 markers whereas 19 were positive for Lr46 but negative for Lr68 linked markers. Of four accessions negative for Lr46 marker, two were positive for Lr68 and two negative. Among the seedling resistant accessions, two that showed Ltn in the field were negative for molecular markers associated with the all 4 APR genes known to be linked with LTN. Our results indicate that T. spelta remains poorly unexploited source of rust resistance.