Strategies of the European initiative for resistance breeding against fusarium head blight

Wheat is Europe's most important cereal crop, cultivated on over 16 Million ha, yielding over 88 million metric tons per year. The wheat quality and consumer safety is threatened by Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) caused by i.e. Fusarium culmorum, F. graminearum and F. avenaceum. Most of the wheat varieties grown in the EU today are susceptible to this disease. Crop management and chemical measures to prevent the disease and associated mycotoxin contamination are either not available or not feasible. The development of resistant varieties is the most reliable and environmentally sound means to combat this disease In the presented paper, firstly an overview about initiatives on European, national and regional levels to tackle the disease are described involving a wide range of expertise from public and private research institutions as well as breeding and food processing companies In the second part and in more details, the results about two European-wide projects are presented 1. From the EU-funded project "FUCOMYR" where research institutes and breeding companies from 6 European countries are cooperating together, results about the efficiency of conventional selection for resistant lines, artificial infection in mist irrigated fields and under controlled condition are demonstrated. This enabled the team of participants to detect 3 new DNA markers for Type 11 resistance by QTL mapping of segregating populations. Three genomic regions were found to be significantly associated with FHB resistance: the most-prominent effect was detected on the short arm of chromosome 3B, explaining up to 60% of the phenotypic variance for type 11 resistance. A further QTL was located on chromosome 5A and a third one on I B. The QTL regions on 3B and 5A were tagged with flanking SSR markers, the I B QTL was found associated with the high-molecular-weight glutenin locus. These results indicate that FHB resistance is under control of a few major QTL's operating together with an unknown number of minor genes 2. In the EU-Concerted Action "MYCOTOCHAIN", partners from breeding research institutions, breeding companies, milling industries and food processors from five European countries were aiming to synchronise their activities and efforts towards mycotoxin control in cereal and cereal products for food and feed. The results of the proposed recommendations for mycotoxin contamination thresholds for the whole production chain from wheat breeding strategies until the final consumer products for European and possibly worldwide acceptance are demonstrated and discussed.