Molecular mapping of QTL for type I Fusarium head blight resistance in two recombinant inbred lines wheat populations

Abstract Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major concern for wheat production and food safety, globally. Resistance to infection (type I resistance) is important for breeding varieties with good FHB resistance. To better understand the genetic architecture underlying type I FHB resistance, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping was conducted using two recombinant inbred line populations derived from the crosses Yangmai 4 (YM4)/Yanzhan 1 (YZ1) and Yangmai 5 (YM5)/YZ1. A total of five resistance QTL, including QFhb.yaas‐2D , QFhb.yaas‐4D , QFhb.yaas‐5B , QFhb.yaas‐6B , and QFhb.yaas‐3A , were detected from these two populations. Except for QFhb.yaas‐2D and QFhb.yaas‐5B , the resistance effects of all the other QTLs are derived from YM4 or YM5. QFhb.yaas‐4D is a common QTL detected both in YM4/YZ1 and YM5/YZ1 populations. QFhb.yaas‐2D , QFhb.yaas‐4D , and QFhb.yaas‐5B were colocalized with known plant height (PH) genes Rht8 , Rht‐D1 , and flowering date (FD) gene Vrn‐B1 . However, QFhb.yaas‐6B and QFhb.yaas‐3A were not associated with PH and FD. Kompetitive Allele‐Specific PCR markers for QFhb.yaas‐6B and QFhb.yaas‐3A had been developed and validated in an additional panel of 211 wheat cultivars/lines. The result showed that these two resistance alleles decreased 46.65% of the percentage of diseased spikelets. These results provide valuable information for the fine mapping of QFhb.yaas‐6B and QFhb.yaas‐3A in the future.