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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Soybean/maize Germplasm, Pathology, and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #156967
Title: MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT RESISTANCE IN WANGSHUIBI WITH SSR AND AFLP MARKERS

Author
item ZHOU, WHEN - UNIV OF ILLINOIS
item KOLB, FREDERIC - UNIV OF ILLINOIS
item YU, JIANBIN - UNIV OF ILLINOIS
item BAI, GUIHUA - OKLAHOMA STATE UNIV
item BOZE, LAWRENCE - UNIV OF ILLINOIS
item DOMIER, LESLIE

Submitted to: Genome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/12/2004
Publication Date: 12/3/2004
Citation: Zhou, W.C., Kolb, F.L., Yu, J., Bai, G., Boze, L.K., Domier, L.L. 2004. Molecular characterization of fusarium head blight resistance in wangshuibi with simple sequence repeat and amplified fragment length polymorphis markers. Genome. 47:1137-1143.

Interpretive Summary: Scab is a destructive disease of wheat that is caused by a fungus named Fusarium graminearum. In addition to wheat, this fungus infects barley, oats, and rye, and causes stalk rot in corn. Wheat scab significantly reduces wheat grain yield and quality, resulting in billions of dollars in crop losses annually. The fungus also produces mycotoxins that limit the consumption of infected grain by humans and livestock. While it is sometimes possible to use fungicides to control the disease, the costs are often prohibitive. If scab resistant wheat varieties were developed, they could represent cost efficient and effective means of limiting losses caused by the disease. However, producing scab resistant wheat varieties by traditional breeding methods has been difficult because of the genetic complexity of scab resistance and the variability of environmental conditions that influence the development of the disease. In a previous study, we produced markers linked to a gene that provides most of the scab resistance from a Chinese wheat line. In this study, we demonstrated the usefulness of these markers as tools in accelerating the development of new scab resistant wheat lines. The results of these studies will be of interest to researchers who are working to produce new scab resistant wheat varieties, which should reduce economic losses to wheat producers and reduce the levels of mycotoxin in harvested grain.

Technical Abstract: Wheat head scab, also called Fusarium head blight (FHB), is a destructive disease that can reduce both grain yield and quality in many regions of the world. Growing FHB resistant varieties is an effective, economical, and environmentally sound way to reduce economic losses caused by this fungal disease. Evaluation of FHB resistance is laborious, costly, and time consuming. Molecular mapping and tagging of FHB resistance quantitative trait loci (QTL) and marker-assisted selection (MAS) of these QTL will aid in the development of FHB resistant cultivars by increasing the selection efficiency and reducing the amount of phenotypic evaluation required. Most reported FHB resistance QTL are from Sumai 3 and its derivatives. To broaden the genetic base of FHB resistance, it is important to identify QTL from other FHB resistance sources. Wangshuibai is a FHB resistant landrace that originated from China and is not known to be related to Sumai 3. A mapping population of 139 F5 derived recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was developed from a cross of Wangshuibai × Wheaton. This population was developed to map the FHB resistant QTL in Wangshuibai, and was evaluated twice for Type II FHB resistance. A total of 1196 SSR (simple sequence repeat) and AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) markers were mapped on this population, and four FHB resistance QTL were detected. A major QTL near the end of 3BS explained 37.3% of the phenotypic variation. Another QTL on 3BS, located close to the centromere, explained 7.4% of the phenotypic variation. Two additional QTL on 7AL and 1BL explained 9.8% and 11.9% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. The SSR and AFLP markers closely linked to these FHB resistance QTL may be useful for stacking QTL from Wangshuibai and other sources to develop cultivars with transgressive FHB resistance.