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Poster # 310
Poster Title: Discovering Marker-Trait Associations for Fusarium Head Blight and Kernel Traits in Texas Wheat Breeding Lines
Authors: Yahya Rauf 1, Abdullah FNU 2, Luke Whitely 2, Junli Zhang 1, Daniel Hathcoat 2, Geraldine Opena 2, Jackie Rudd 1, Shuyu Liu 1,2
1. Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 6500 W Amarillo Blvd, Amarillo, 79106, Texas, United States
2. Department of Soil and Crop Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843, United States
Corresponding author: Shuyu Liu Email: Shuyu.Liu@ag.tamu.edu

Presenting Author:   Yahya Rauf



Fusarium head blight (FHB) primarily caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum is a very devastating wheat disease causing significant losses in grain yield and quality. It infects wheat spikes and gradually causes discoloration and deterioration of grain, and contamination with mycotoxins, mainly deoxynivalenol (DON). FHB resistance is very complex due to its quantitative nature of inheritance involving several genes. This study was designed to explore allelic diversity within the Texas A&M wheat breeding lines for FHB disease components (severity, incidence, Fhb-index, FDK, and DON) and kernel traits (area, perimeter, length, width, TKW). A set of 97 and 195 lines from Texas wheat breeding nurseries in 2024 and 2025, respectively were evaluated for FHB using a randomized complete block design in College Station, TX. Kernel traits were collected using the hp Scanjet G4010 photo scanner for image capturing and GrainScan v3. software for image analysis. Genomic libraries were prepared and run on Illumina NovaSeq 6000 to generate 150 bp paired end reads. Sequences were aligned to the IWGSC RefSeq genome assembly v2.1 using the Burrows Wheeler Aligner for SNP calling. Genomic sequences were filtered at 1% minor allele frequency and 5% heterozygosity which finally retained 109,323 and 55,051 polymorphic SNP markers for 2024 and 2025 mapping panels, respectively. To identify significant genomic regions associated with phenotyping traits, Blink, FarmCPU and MLMM genome-wide association study models were implemented using the R package GAPIT version 3.5. Principal component analysis revealed that the first two components explained 62 to 67% phenotypic variations for Scab2024 and Scab2025 panels, respectively. Seed traits were highly correlated with r values ranging from 0.60-0.89 in Scab2024 and 0.37-0.94 in Scab2025. For disease components, INC and SEV had significant correlation (r=0.61), FDK correlated with seed length, SEV (r=0.32), and INC (r=0.4) in 2024. FDK correlated with seed length and SEV (r=0.26) in 2025. FDK had significant correlation with DON in both years (r =0.52 and 0.33). Breeding lines in both panels had high relatedness due to narrow genetic basis and common pedigrees in the breeding program. Preliminary results revealed several significant marker-trait associations for DON and other traits. The identified significant SNPs could reduce DON by 1.7 to 8.8 ppm. Fhb1 gene on chromosome 3BS is the most common source of resistance but we did not detect through genome wide markers. Texas wheat breeding line might potentially carry some unique resistances for FHB which needs further confirmation.