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Poster # 502
Poster Title: Advancing Wheat Resistance to Fusarium Head Blight through Genomic Prediction
Authors: Emily Billow 1, Esten Mason 1, Zachary Winn 1
1. Colorado State University, Soil and Crop Sciences, Fort Collins, CO
Corresponding Author: Esten Mason, esten.mason@colostate.edu

Presenting Author:   Emily Billow



Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), or head scab, is a disease of Triticum aestivum caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. It reduces grain yield, test weight, and milling quality, and leads to the production of mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol (DON), which threaten human and animal health. Recent climate shifts have intensified FHB outbreaks, including in the Great Plains region of the U.S., where hard winter wheat is predominantly grown, underscoring the need for rapid development of resistant cultivars. Resistance to FHB in wheat is primarily governed by small-to-moderate effect Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL), with QTL mapping widely used for Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS). Notably, the Fhb1 locus is considered a stable and valuable QTL for MAS, but due to the polygenic nature of resistance, combining MAS with genomic prediction is essential to capture broader genetic effects. This project integrates genome-wide marker data and historical phenotypic records to generate genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) for key traits supporting selection decisions. Annual line contributions from collaborating universities were genotyped using a 25K SNP array. In 2025, approximately 450 CSU breeding lines were screened at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), with visual ratings collected in-person and Fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK) data gathered post-harvest. Preliminary analyses combining historical phenotypic records and 25K SNP genotypes yielded a mean Pearson’s correlation of 0.43 for FHB visual ratings. While current prediction accuracies are limited by small training populations, results highlight the potential of expanding datasets to improve genomic prediction and accelerate FHB resistance breeding.