Strategies of the European Initiative for Resistance Breeding Against Fusarium Head Blight

Abstract

Wheat is Europe's most important cereal crop, cultivated on over 16Million ha, yielding over 88 million metric tons per year. The wheatquality and consumer safety is threatened by Fusarium Head Blight (FHB)caused by i.e. Fusarium culmorum, F. graminearum and F. avenaceum. Mostof the wheat varieties grown in the EU today are susceptible to thisdisease. Crop management and chemical measures to prevent the diseaseand associated mycotoxin contamination are either not available or notfeasible. The development of resistant varieties is the most reliableand environmentally sound means to combat this diseaseIn the presented paper, firstly an overview about initiatives onEuropean, national and regional levels to tackle the disease aredescribed involving a wide range of expertise from public and privateresearch institutions as well as breeding and food processing companiesIn the second part and in more details, the results about twoEuropean-wide projects are presented1. From the EU-funded project ``FUCOMYR{''} where research institutesand breeding companies from 6 European countries are cooperatingtogether, results about the efficiency of conventional selection forresistant lines, artificial infection in mist irrigated fields and undercontrolled condition are demonstrated. This enabled the team ofparticipants to detect 3 new DNA markers for Type 11 resistance by QTLmapping of segregating populations. Three genomic regions were found tobe significantly associated with FHB resistance: the most-prominenteffect was detected on the short arm of chromosome 3B, explaining up to60% of the phenotypic variance for type 11 resistance. A further QTLwas located on chromosome 5A and a third one on I B. The QTL regions on3B and 5A were tagged with flanking SSR markers, the I B QTL was foundassociated with the high-molecular-weight glutenin locus. These resultsindicate that FHB resistance is under control of a few major QTL'soperating together with an unknown number of minor genes2. In the EU-Concerted Action ``MYCOTOCHAIN{''}, partners from breedingresearch institutions, breeding companies, milling industries and foodprocessors from five European countries were aiming to synchronise theiractivities and efforts towards mycotoxin control in cereal and cerealproducts for food and feed. The results of the proposed recommendationsfor mycotoxin contamination thresholds for the whole production chainfrom wheat breeding strategies until the final consumer products forEuropean and possibly worldwide acceptance are demonstrated anddiscussed.