Development and Validation of a Perfect KASP Marker for Fusarium Head Blight Resistance Gene in Wheat.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a devastating wheat disease with a significant economic impact. is the most important large effect and stable QTL for FHB resistance. A pore-forming toxin-like () gene was recently identified as an underlying gene for resistance. In this study, we developed and validated a -based Kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) marker for . The KASP marker, PFT_KASP, was used to screen 298 diverse wheat breeding lines and cultivars. The KASP clustering results were compared with gel-based gene specific markers and the widely used linked STS marker, UMN10. Eight disagreements were found between PFT_KASP and UMN10 assays among the tested lines. Based on the genotyping and sequencing of genes in the region, these genotypes were found to be common with a previously characterized susceptible haplotype. Therefore, our results indicate that PFT_KASP is a perfect diagnostic marker for and would be a valuable tool for introgression and pyramiding of FHB resistance in wheat cultivars.