MINING FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT RESISTANCE QTL IN A PANEL OF SYNTHETIC HEXAPLOID-DERIVED WHEAT LINES FROM CIMMYT Abstract uri icon

abstract

  • In recent years, incorporation of Aegilops tauschii as a source of D genome in Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat (SHW) populations has led to different levels of resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has developed thousands of SHWs with the aim of increasing the genetic diversity in the wheat gene pool. This research aimed at finding resistance Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) QTL in a diverse SHW population. A panel of 194 SHW-derived lines from CIMMYT was evaluated for response to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in a FHB nursery at the University of Guelph Elora Research Station in two replications over two years (2016-18). The first and second year FHB evaluations revealed significant genetic variation among wheat lines for resistance components, disease incidence, severity and index as well as the number of Fusarium Damaged Kernels (FDKs) and Deoxynivalenol (DON) content. These components were positively correlated, except that disease incidence displayed positive correlation only with disease index in 2016-17. These wheat lines were also genotyped using Illumina iSelect wheat 90K SNP beadchip, which provided 38000 SNPs for Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) of FHB resistance components. Preliminary results suggested 21 significant marker-trait associations with FHB resistant traits. These consisted of 3 for DON content on2B and 4A, 9 for the percentage of FDKs on 2A, 2B, 3B, 4B, 6A and 7A, 5 for disease incidence on 6A and 7D and 4 for FHB index on 4B and 6A chromosomes. Further development of this study would involve the identification of QTL involved in FHB resistance.

publication date

  • July 2019