Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum complex, is one of the most disastrous diseases seriously affecting yield and quality in wheat. Wheat kernels infected by Fusarium pathogen produce Fusarium mycotoxin, especially deoxynivalenol (DON), which may threaten the health of human beings and livestock. Breeding and application FHB resistant varieties is effective to control the disease and mycotoxin. Breeding for the resistance to FHB in wheat was commenced in 1950s in China. A national network on FHB research in wheat was established in 1970s. Inoculation methods were established and widely used for evaluating FHB resistance. Sumai 3, Wangshuibai and other resources with high resistance to FHB were selected and applied worldwide. Release of Yangmai 158 and Ningmai 9 with desirable agronomic traits and moderate resistance to FHB was a breakthrough in wheat breeding for FHB resistance. Such varieties have not only been widely applied in wheat production, but also produced more than 20 wheat varieties as parents of each variety. In addition to conventional breeding, chromosome engineering was used for transfer alien germplasm into wheat cultivated varieties, somaclonal variation and double haplotype produced by cell engineering techniques broadened genetic background and improved breeding efficiency in wheat genetic improvement for FHB resistance. The outbreak of FHB in North America in 1990s initiated the attention to FHB research in the United States and Europe. International cooperation prompted the exchange on material, technology and information in wheat breeding for FHB resistance. As results, significant progress in the research of FHB resistance type, inoculation techniques and evaluation index, germplasm development, QTL mapping, gene cloning, marker assisted selection and breeding for FHB resistance has been made. More than 600 QTL associated with FHB resistance were identified and located on all 21 chromosomes of wheat by using bi-parents linkage mapping and whole genome association analysis. Seven major genes/QTL were named as Fhb1-Fhb7. For the major QTL, Fhb1, associated with FHB resistance derived from Sumai 3 and Wangshuibai, the key candidate gene was cloned and validated, functional markers were developed and effectively used for marker assisted selection and new varieties possessing Fhb1 were released. The Fhb7 gene from Thinopyrum ponticum has also been isolated and used to improve FHB resistance in wheat. Pyramiding multiple QTL by marker assisted selection enhanced the resistance to FHB in wheat base on QTL fine mapping and close linked marker development. In the future, we should establish accurate phenotypic evaluation systems for evaluating the resistance to Fusarium head blight, strengthen the discovery of novel resistance germplasms and genes, isolate key genes related to FHB resistance and uncover their molecular mechanism, combine marker-assisted selection or genome selection with conventional breeding to continuously improve FHB resistance, breed wheat varieties with FHB resistance significantly improved and excellent agronomic traits.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most important and destructive wheat diseases worldwide, threatening both food security and safety. In this study, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population with 269 F₆ lines developed from a cross between ‘Nanjing 8611’ and ‘Ocoroni’ was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for FHB resistance. Field FHB trials were conducted for three years in Nanjing, China, using point inoculation, and two years in Mexico with spray inoculation. A high-density genetic map was constructed for the RIL population using the wheat 55 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. A total of 13 QTLs were detected on chromosomes 1B, 2D, 3B, 5D, 6D, and 7A, among which two major QTLs, QFhb.CIM-2D.1 and QDon.CIM-3B.1, were stably expressed in this study. Conditional QTL analysis suggested that QFhb.CIM-2D.1 contributes to reduced deoxynivalenol (DON) content via decreasing FHB severity, whereas QDon.CIM-3B.1 contributed to FHB resistance by directly controlling DON accumulation. Stacking of QFhb.CIM-2D.1 and QDon.CIM-3B.1 exhibited a marked increase in resistance against both FHB and DON. Furthermore, two Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) markers, KASP-1369 and KASP-8394, tightly linked to QFhb.CIM-2D.1 and QDon.CIM-3B.1, respectively, were developed and successfully validated in their respective genetic populations. Altogether, these results broaden the understanding of the genetic basis of resistance to FHB, and the developed markers are valuable for marker-assisted wheat breeding.

The emergence and spread of wheat blast caused by fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum is a threat to global wheat production. The resistance level and genetic loci for blast resistance in Chinese germplasm remain unknown. A panel of 266 bread wheat accessions from China, CIMMYT-Mexico and other countries was screened for head blast resistance under 12 field experiments in Bolivia and Bangladesh. Subsequently, a genome-wide association study was performed to understand the genetic basis of wheat blast resistance. The average blast index of all the accessions was 53.7% ± 12.7%, and 10 accessions including Chinese accessions Yumai 10 and Yu 02321 showed moderate to high levels of blast resistance, accounting for only 3.8% in the panel. Fifty-eight significant SNPs clustered in a 28.9 Mb interval on the 2AS/2NS translocation region, explaining phenotypic variation between 10.0% and 35.0%. The frequency of the 2AS/2NS translocation in the Chinese accessions was as low as 4.5%. These results indicated that the 2NS fragment was the only major locus conferring resistance to wheat blast in this panel, and the resistant and moderately resistant lines identified could be deployed in breeding.