Location: Crop Improvement and Genetics Research
Project Number: 2030-21430-015-003-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2023
End Date: Oct 31, 2025
Objective:
Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat. A challenge in FHB resistance breeding is that it is difficult to integrate the FHB resistance with adaptability. Therefore, the objectives of this project are to: 1) Develop high-breeding value hard red spring wheat (HRSW) germplasm with a combination of FHB resistance, adaptability, yield, and end-use quality, 2) transfer FHB resistance from synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW) lines into HRSW varieties, and 3) transfer and pyramid major FHB resistant quantitative trait loci (QTL) into HRSW varieties.
Approach:
An HRSW line 15FAR1157-1 carrying Fhb1 and PI 277012 derived 5AL QTL was previously developed by backcrossing PI 277012 with HRSW varieties ‘Glenn’, ‘Howard’, and ‘Faller’. To develop high-breeding value HRSW germplasm with a combination of FHB resistance, adaptability, yield, and end-use quality in Objective 1, we recently developed six double haploids (DHs) (15FAR1157-1/’ND Frohberg’) and 86 BC1F3 lines, which are homozygous for 5AL QTL and Fhb1, from the cross and backcross of 15FAR1157-1 with HRSW variety ND Frohberg. All these lines will be evaluated for their FHB resistance in the FHB nurseries in two locations (Prosper and Fargo, ND) in the summer of 2023. The lines with improved FHB resistance will be selected and further evaluated for FHB resistance and agronomic traits in greenhouse and field FHB nurseries in 2024.
To transfer FHB resistance from SHW lines into HRSW varieties in Objective 2, we previously developed approximately 900 BC1F5 lines by backcrossing the SHW lines SW93, SW183, and SW187 to HRSW varieties Glenn, ‘Barlow’, ‘Vitpro’, ‘Grandin’, etc. A total of 276 BC1F5 lines were selected based on field evaluation in 2022 and their BC1F6 lines and wheat parents will be evaluated for FHB resistance and agronomic traits in the greenhouse for two seasons and field FHB nurseries in two locations (Prosper and Fargo, ND) in 2023 and 2024. These lines will be genotyped using Illumina’s Infinium iSelect 90k wheat SNP array. The FHB disease evaluation data and 90K SNP marker data will be used to map FHB resistance QTL using genome-wide association study (GWAS).
To transfer and pyramid major FHB-resistant QTL into HRSW varieties in Objective 3, Chinese what landrace ‘Wangshuibai’ carrying Fhb1, Fhb2, Fhb4, Fhb5 and a wheat-Thinopyrum elongatum chromosome 7B/7E introgression line carrying Fhb7 will be used as donors in backcrosses with ND Frohberg. The BC1F1 plants will be genotyped using the markers diagnostic or tightly linked to Fhb1, Fhb2, Fhb4, Fhb5, and Fhb7. The BC1F1 plants carrying these QTL will be backcrossed five times. The BC5F1 plants carrying Fhb1, Fhb2, Fhb4, and Fhb5 from Wangshuibai will be crossed to the BC5F1 plants carrying Fhb7. The resultant F1 plants carrying all five QTL will be further crossed to the elite HRSW lines carrying PI 272012 derived 5AS/5AL QTL. The plants that are homozygous for Fhb1, Fhb2, Fhb4, Fhb5, Fhb7, and PI 272012 derived 5AS/5AL QTL will be selected by genotyping BC5F2 plants from the last crosses. The new HRSW lines derived from the selected BC5F2 plants will be evaluated for FHB resistance in the greenhouse and the FHB nurseries in two locations (Fargo and Prosper, ND) and the top lines will also be evaluated for agronomic traits, yield, and end-use quality in a yield trial in the two locations (Prosper and Langdon, ND).
