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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » Crop Production and Pest Control Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #208137
Title: Characterization of chromosomal regions containing quantitive trait loci determining specificity towards bread and durum wheat cultivars in the fungal wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola

Author
item WARE, SARAH - PLANT RES. INTERN. NETHER
item WITTENBERG, ALEXANDER - PLANT RES. INT. NETHERLAN
item VERSTAPPEN, ELS - PLANT RES. INT. NETHER
item VAN DER LEE, THEO - PLANT RES. INT. NETHER
item SCHOUTEN, HENK - PLANT RES. INT. NETHER
item Goodwin, Stephen - Steve
item GRIMWOOD, JANE - STANFORD HUMAN GEN. CTR
item BRISTOW, JIM - DOE-JOINT GEN. INST.
item GRIGORIEV, IGOR - DOE-JOINT GEN. INST.
item KEMA, GERT - PLANT RES. INT. NETHER

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome VX Conference Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/15/2006
Publication Date: 1/13/2007
Citation: Ware, S.B., Wittenberg, A.H., Verstappen, E.C., Van Der Lee, T., Schouten, H.J., Goodwin, S.B., Grimwood, J., Bristow, J., Grigoriev, I., Kema, G.H. 2007. Characterization of chromosomal regions containing quantitive trait loci determining specificity towards bread and durum wheat cultivars in the fungal wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola. [abstract] Plant and Animal Genome VX Conference. Abstract W360. Available: http://www.intlpag.org/15/abstracts/PAG15_W56_360.html

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Specificity of the haploid, plant-pathogenic fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola towards durum (tetraploid, genomes AABB) versus bread (AABBDD) wheat is well documented. To estimate the number of genes involved in host species specificity, we crossed an isolate of M. graminicola collected from bread wheat (IPO323) with one from durum wheat (IPO95052) and analyzed the pathogenicity of 163 progeny to four cultivars of bread wheat and three of durum. Segregation data for pathogenicity to the seven cultivars of wheat were added to a high-density genetic linkage map containing 1,144 Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers. Combined analyses of the phenotypic data and the DArT map identified nine quantitative trait loci (QTL) for cultivar specificity on seven linkage groups. These genetic loci were aligned to the whole-genome sequence of M. graminicola to identify the genes involved in specificity. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive QTL analysis of virulence performed on a plant-pathogenic fungus. The previously accepted hypothesis that host species specificity among isolates of M. graminicola is under control of a single gene appears to be incorrect. Instead, specificity of M. graminicola to durum versus bread wheat appears to be under multigenic control. Therefore, pathogenicity to different species of cultivated wheat most likely is conditioned by a mix of genetically inherited factors, and the distinction between host species and cultivar specificity is not clearly defined.