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KEYNOTE LECTURE 1 SESSION 4: GENETICS OF HOSTS – PLANT
RESISTANCE TO FUSARIUM, VARIETY DEVELOPMENT
Resistance improvement of wheat to Fusarium head
blight: challenges and possibilities
H. Buerstmayr, M. Buerstmayr, W. Schweiger, B. Steiner
BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Department IFA-Tulln, Institute for
Biotechnology in Plant Production, Konrad Lorenz Str. 20, A-3430 Tulln, Austria.
E-mail: hermann.buerstmayr@boku.ac.at
In the gene pool of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) large variation for resistance
to Fusarium head blight has been discovered, but strikingly less in current durum
wheat (T. durum). Resistance to Fusarium head blight is a truly quantitative trait
controlled by polygenes (QTL) and modulated by the environment. Numerous
studies have been conducted to decipher the quantitative inheritance of Fusarium
resistance in wheat mainly based on QTL mapping using segregating populations
(Buerstmayr et al. 2009). With the advent of high-density genotyping tools
association genomics and genome wide prediction approaches became
practicable recently.
Even in the era of genomics progress by selection depends heavily on accurate
and powerful phenotyping. In a typical breeding situation large numbers of
experimental lines need to be tested for resistance response. Genotype-byenvironment
interaction plays an important role in such trials and may result in low
heritability. Therefore, measures need to be taken to obtain reliable resistance
measurements, such as artificial inoculation, control of environmental conditions if
feasible, and most importantly replication of trials within and across environments.
In addition, it is not easy to separate active resistance responses from passive
resistance due to plant morphological and/or developmental plant traits.
We report here about: 1) successful application of large effect QTL in marker
assisted bread wheat improvement; 2) identification and genetic analysis of
promising novel genetic resources for bread wheat and durum wheat breeding; 3)
the association of morphological traits, especially plant height and the extent of
anther extrusion with FHB resistance. The implications for resistance breeding will
be discussed.
Acknowledgements: we acknowledge funding by the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF), projects F3711 and TRP136-B16.
Keywords Resistance genetics, phenotyping, trait associations, genomic assisted
breeding
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