Effects of introgression of two QTL for fusarium head blight resistance from Asian spring wheat by marker-assisted backcrossing into European winter wheat on fusarium head blight resistance, yield and quality traits

Breeding for fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance of wheat is a continuous challenge for plant breeders. Resistance to FHB is a quantitative trait, governed by several to many genes and modulated by environmental conditions. The presented study was undertaken to assess the effect on improving FHB resistance and on possible unwanted side effects ('linkage drag') of two resistance QTL, namely Fhb1 and Qfhs.ifa-5A, from the spring wheat line CM-82036 when transferred by marker-assisted backcrossing into several European winter wheat lines. To achieve these goals, we developed and evaluated fifteen backcross-two-derived families based on nine European winter wheat varieties as recipients and the FHB resistant variety CM-82036 as resistance donor. The QTL Qfhs.ifa-5A had a relatively small impact on increasing FHB resistance. On average lines with Fhb1 plus Qfhs.ifa-5A combined were only slightly more resistant compared to lines with Fhb1 alone. The obtained results suggest that the effect of the spring wheat-derived QTL on improving FHB resistance increases in the order Qfhs.ifa-5A < Fhb1 a parts per thousand currency sign Qfhs.ifa-5A plus Fhb1 combined. The genetic background of the recipient line had a large impact on the resistance level of the obtained lines. No systematic negative effect of the spring wheat-derived QTL on grain yield, thousand grain weight, hectoliter weight and protein content was found. The use of spring wheat-derived FHB resistance QTL for breeding high yielding cultivars with improved FHB resistance appears therefore highly promising.