Research Project: Development of Scab Resistant Soft Red Winter Wheat Varieties

Location: National Programs

Project Number: 0500-00053-003-089-G
Project Type: Grant

Start Date: Jun 8, 2014
End Date: Jun 7, 2019

Objective:
Project 1 - Development of Scab Resistant Soft Red Winter Wheat Varieties: 1) development and release of varieties with improved FHB resistance, introgression of FHB resistance into breeding germplasm; and 2) development and mapping of markers for sources of FHB resistance. Project 2 - Male Sterile Facilitated Recurrent Selection for FHB Resistance (MPI-5): The objective of this project is to advance male-sterile facilitated recurrent selection populations that have been developed to combine genes for FHB resistance from multiple sources in soft winter wheat backgrounds adapted to the eastern U.S. Project 3 - Coordinated Phenotyping of Uniform Nurseries and Official Variety Trials: Screen and Evaluate approx. 450 unique advanced breeding lines and released cultivars for FHB resistance.

Approach:
Project 1: We will evaluate the FHB resistance of breeding lines in six cooperative nurseries and the Illinois Wheat Variety Trial. We will evaluate all University of Illinois breeding lines in the misted, inoculated FHB field nursery at Urbana, IL. Approximately 4000 rows will be evaluated in the replicated FHB nursery. Grain spawn (corn kernels cultured with 6-10 FHB isolates) will be used to inoculate the nursery which will be mist-irrigated during flowering. Data will be collected on incidence, severity and percent FDK, FHB and ISK indexes will be calculated and samples will be sent for DON evaluation. Data and germplasm will be shared with other breeding programs within the subregion and across the region. Project 2: Will use the seed produced and selected in the previous year, inoculate with FHB spores at flowering and begin to derive lines by selecting individual FHB resistant plants. Project 3: 1) Phenotype advanced breeding lines that are candidates for release: 2) place FHB and other agronomic, disease resistance, and quality data in database: 3) report on purification and seed increase of the best lines.