Authors: Jinan Park 1, Ruolin Bian 1, Lanfei Zhao 1, Amy Bernardo 2, Paul St. Amand 2, Brett Carver 3, Alan Fritz 1, Katherine Frels 4, Mason Esten 5, Mary Guttieri 2, and Guihua Bai 1,2
1. Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506
2. USDA-ARS, Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research Unit, Manhattan, KS 66506
3. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078
4. Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 6858
5. Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
Corresponding Author: Guihua Bai, guihua.bai@usda.gov
Presenting Author: Jinan Park
Abstract
Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a devastating disease in wheat worldwide, causing significant yield losses and mycotoxin contamination in infected grain. Although hundreds of resistance genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been reported to date, wheat cultivars used in farmers’ fields in the Great Plains are mainly FHB susceptible. Recently, two major effect genes (Fhb1 and Fhb7) have been cloned, and their gene makers (TaHRC-KASP and Fhb7-828bp) are available. Fhb9 is a novel QTL from a Chinese cultivar with a major effect and has flanking markers (KASP-10238 and KASP-12056) available. However, none of them have been deployed in any U.S. hard winter wheat (HWW). Therefore, it remains unknown how they perform in diverse U.S. HWW genetic backgrounds. This study used marker-assisted backcrossing to transfer the three genes into six HWW varieties (Guardian, KS16DH0010-17, NE18445, OK19225, Providence, and U7494) with various levels of FHB resistance. We stacked the three genes from different donors, and then crossed and backcrossed each recurrent parent to the donor carrying all three genes using marker-assisted selection (MAS). We selected 1-19 homozygous plants containing all three genes, none of the three genes, each of the three genes, or two genes in different combinations for each cross after screening 3,592 BC2F2 plants with four markers. About 400 BC2F2 plants were selected and advanced, and their BC2F3 and BC2F4 lines will be phenotyped for FHB resistance in both greenhouse and field experiments. The selected plants will be screened using multiplex restriction amplicon sequencing (MRASeq) to evaluate the donor-genomes’ contribution in each selected line. The results from this study will lead to understanding of FHB resistance performance of Fhb1, Fhb7, and Fhb9 across diverse HWW genetic backgrounds and release of improved germplasm with these major genes in adapted HWW genetic backgrounds.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DISCLAIMER
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is a cooperative project with the U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.