ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Pathogen Interactions
A segment of Triticum timopheevii chromosome 3G confers type II Fusarium head blight resistance and reduces DON accumulation in wheat
Provisionally accepted
- 1John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom
- 2University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major disease of small grain cereals that is particularly damaging on wheat and can result in yield losses of up to 80%. Resistance to FHB in wheat is broadly classified as resistance to initial infection (type I) or resistance to disease spread within the spike (type II). A high level of type I FHB resistance was reported in an accession of wheat wild relative Triticum timopheevii. Hexaploid wheat-T. timopheevii introgression lines carrying a segment of the short arm of chromosome 3G (Chr3G) of this accession expressed high levels of FHB resistance following spray inoculation. Further analyses of these introgression lines showed that the Chr3G segment confers a potent type II resistance, accompanied by improved grain weight retention, and reduced deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation in grain. These results indicate that the Chr3G resistance has the potential to dramatically reduce FHB susceptibility and DON accumulation in grain in wheat cultivars. An introgression of a segment of Chr7At into the short arm of chromosome Chr7A also enhanced type II FHB resistance.
Keywords: Breeding, Fusarium head blight, Introgression, Plant Pathology, wheat
Received: 10 Nov 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Steed, Grewal, Badgami, King, King and Nicholson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Paul Nicholson
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