Multi-pronged Fusarium head blight management strategy in Western Canada through insight into pathogen virulence mechanisms

Project Description

This project builds on the ongoing project co-funded by Sask Wheat on Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) resistance to fungicide, in which a Nested Association Mapping population for F. graminearum (FgNAM) was developed by crossing between eight isolates of Fusarium mostly from Saskatchewan and Manitoba and, a high-quality genome assembly have been generated. This population segregates for multiple traits including aggressiveness (quantitative variation of pathogenicity), deoxynivalenol (DON) chemotype (15ADON vs. 3ADON) and concentration and sensitivity to triazole fungicides.

FgNAM provides a unique opportunity for the identification and mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) conferring virulence and mycotoxin production in F. graminearum. In this current project, the team will phenotype the progenies of FgNAM for aggressiveness on durum lines with FHB resistance QTL (subjected to gene isolation in the on going 4D wheat project). The concentration of DON will be determined using the Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) protocol that has been recently developed at U of S. QTL mapping will reveal the loci associated with FHB virulence and DON production (Fg-QTL) and the percentage of phenotypic variance explained by each.

This project also builds on the findings or developments from three ongoing or completed projects (FHB Triazole project, 4D wheat project and LC-MS/MS project) that are co-funded by Sask Wheat.