ARS | Publication request: Introgression of FHB Resistance from Alien Species-Derived Lines into Spring Wheat

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 18, 2008
Publication Date: December 2, 2008
Citation: Zhang, Q., Oliver, R.E., Mcarthur, R.I., Chao, S., Stack, R.W., Zhong, S., Xu, S.S., Cai, X. 2008. Introgression of FHB Resistance from Alien Species-Derived Lines into Spring Wheat. Meeting Abstract. In: Canty, S.M., E. Walton, A. Clark., D. Ellis. J. Mundell, and D.A. Van Sanford (Eds.), Proceedings of the National Fusarium Head Blight Forum; 2008 Dec 2-4; Indianapolis, IN. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky. pp.219

Technical Abstract: We have produced and collected over 300 wheat lines derived from the crosses of wheat with wild species related to wheat. Evaluation of these lines for reaction to Fusarium head blight (FHB) identified 74 lines with resistance comparable to “Sumai 3” in two greenhouse seasons. Most of the resistant lines, however, cannot be utilized directly in wheat breeding because of the linkage drag associated with the alien chromatin from the wild species. We have been eliminating unwanted alien chromatin from the resistant lines by manipulating chromosomes and introgressing resistance into adapted spring wheat backgrounds through backcrossing and disease screening. To date, we have developed 285 alien introgression lines (BC1-2F6-9) that have consistently showed resistance in several greenhouse seasons. Some of the lines exhibited a level of resistance comparable to “Sumai 3”. The most resistant lines (~150) were evaluated for FHB resistance and agronomic performance in the field at Langdon and Prosper, ND and Jianyang, China. About 20% of the lines maintained resistance under the high disease pressure in the fields. Most of the resistant lines contain minimal amounts of alien chromatin and do not have obvious linkage drag. We will continue improving the resistant lines with undesirable genes from wild species through chromosome manipulation. The resistant introgression lines were haplotyped at the molecular marker loci closely linked to several well-characterized FHB resistance QTL. Some of the resistant lines were found to have the haplotypes different from those associated with the known QTL at the molecular marker loci investigated, suggesting the difference of the resistance QTL in the introgression lines from those known resistance QTL. Currently, we have been preparing seed for DON testing and a larger scale of field evaluation to validate resistance of the introgression lines.