Poster

Anil Karmacharya ¹, Qijun Zhang ², Yueqiang Leng ³, Shaobin Zhong ⁴, Jason D. Fiedler ⁵, Kirk M. Anderson ⁵, Amanda R. Peters Haugrud ⁵, Zhao Jin ², Elias M. Elias ², Xiaofei Zhang ¹, Yong Q. Gu ⁶, Andrew J. Green ², Steven S. Xu ⁶
1. Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
2. Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA
3. Department of Plant Pathology, Microbiology and Biotechnology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA
4. USDA-ARS, Cereal Disease Laboratory, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA
5. USDA-ARS, Cereal Crops Improvement Research Unit, Edward T. Schafer Agriculture Research Center, Fargo, ND 58102, USA
6. USDA-ARS, Crop Improvement and Genetics Research Unit, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, CA 94710, USA Corresponding authors: Andrew J. Green, andrew.j.green@ndsu.edu and Steven S. Xu, steven.xu@usda.gov

Karmacharya, Anil

akarmacharya@ucdavis.edu

Fusarium head blight (FHB) continues to impose significant constraints on grain yield and end-use quality in hard red spring wheat (HRSW), necessitating the development of germplasm with further improved resistance. Successfully integrating exotic resistance sources from Sumai3 (Fhb1) and PI 277012 (Fhb10) into a high-yielding, well-adapted regional variety like ‘ND Frohberg’ without a corresponding yield penalty represents a significant advancement in spring wheat breeding. In this study, a large population derived from a cross and backcross between wheat line 1157-1 (‘Glenn’/PI 277012// ‘Howard’/3/2*‘Faller’) and ND Frohberg, consisting of 46 doubled haploid (DH) lines and 690 BC1-derived advanced lines segregating for Fhb1 and Fhb10 quantitative trait loci (QTLs), was screened using molecular markers to identify QTL combinations. A total of 198 lines, including 166 BC1-derived lines (157 with both Fhb1 and Fhb10, and nine with Fhb1 only) and 21 doubled haploid lines (six with both QTLs and 15 with Fhb1 only), alongside two parental lines and nine HRSW checks, were evaluated in FHB nurseries at Fargo and Prosper, North Dakota, across three growing seasons from 2024 to 2026. Based on field performance, 24 elite lines exhibiting consistently reduced FHB severity and deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation were selected for further characterization in the field and greenhouse assays, as well as for yield evaluation at Thompson, North Dakota, during 2025 and 2026. Notably, six elite lines demonstrated both enhanced FHB resistance and higher grain yield relative to the high-yielding check parent ND Frohberg. Among these superior performers, four carried both QTL, while two DH lines carried Fhb1 only. These findings highlight a critical advance in breeding for elite germplasm, demonstrating the strategic value of integrating Fhb10 with Fhb1 and other native resistance alleles to concurrently elevate disease resistance and agronomic performance in elite hard red spring wheat backgrounds.

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