Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci for Fusarium Head Blight Resistance in Barley

Abstract

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating disease that causes significant reductions in yield and quality in wheat and barley. Barley grains infected with deoxynivalenol (DON), a vomitoxin produced by Fusarium graminearum, are rejected for malting and brewing. Among six-rowed barley cultivars tested thus far, only cv. Chevron exhibited resistance. This study was conducted to map genes and to identify DNA markers for marker-assisted breeding for FHB resistance in cv. Chevron with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. A doubled haploid (DH) population was created from a cross between cv. Chevron and susceptible cv. Stander. Seven field experiments were conducted in four different locations in 2 years. A RFLP map containing 211 loci and covering over 1,000 centimorgans (cM) of the genome was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with relatively low FHB severity and DON concentration. Morphological traits differing between the parents were also measured: heading date, plant height, spike angle, number of nodes per cm of rachis in the spike, and kernel plumpness. Many of the QTL for FHB and DON coincided with QTLs for these morphological traits. The “fix-QTL” algorithm in Mapmaker QTL was used to remove the part of the variance for FHB resistance that may be explained by heading date or plant height. Results from this study suggest that QTLs with major effects for FHB resistance probably do not exist in cv. Chevron. Three QTL intervals, Xcmwg706-Xbcd441 on chromosome 1H, Xbcd307b-Xcdo684b on chromosome 2H, and Xcdo959b-Xabg472 on chromosome 4H, that are not associated with late heading or height may be useful for marker-assisted selection.