Interdisciplinary Approaches to Decipher and Deploy Fusarium Head Blight Resistance in Wheat

Ensuring global food security hinges on robust and sustainable wheat yields, a goal increasingly imperiled by the ubiquitous threat of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB). This disease not only causes catastrophic yield losses but also contaminates grain with harmful mycotoxins, thereby compromising food and feed safety. While traditional resistance breeding has provided foundational strategies the inherent complexities of FHB resistance, often quantitative in nature, coupled with the dynamic adaptive capacity of fungal pathogens, have limited the durability and effectiveness of single-gene solutions in the field.

A significant challenge lies in bridging the gap between discrete molecular discoveries—such as the cloning of an Fhb gene—and the development of robust, field-resistant cultivars. There is an urgent imperative to transcend disciplinary silos, integrating cutting-edge insights from pathology, physiology, molecular biology, and multi-omics to comprehensively dissect the host-pathogen interplay and identify critical nodes for effective intervention.

In this Research Topic, we welcome all article types published by Frontiers in Plant Science that leverage interdisciplinary strategies to advance FHB control, especially those that focus on:

• Systems biology of plant-pathogen interactions, integrating multi-omics (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) to map resistance networks.
• Discovery and functional characterization of novel resistance genes or alleles through forward/reverse genetics and gene editing.
• Mechanistic dissection of pathogen virulence and host immunity, leading to new targets for intervention.
• Advanced breeding strategies (e.g., genomic selection, pyramiding) for deploying durable FHB resistance into elite genetic backgrounds.
Please note: Manuscripts that merely report the identification of QTLs or phenotypes without progressing the mechanistic understanding of the resistance will not be considered.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Fusarium Head Blight, Wheat Resistance, Quantitative Disease Resistance, Host-Pathogen Interaction, Multi-Omics, Gene Pyramiding, Genomic Selection, Effector Biology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.