Mutagenesis and analysis of contrasting wheat lines do not support a role for PFT in Fusarium head blight resistance.

Ambiguity about whether the histidine-rich calcium-binding protein-coding gene (His) or the pore-forming toxin-like gene (PFT) or both are responsible for Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance conferred by the Fhb1 quantitative trait locus hinders progress toward elucidating Fhb1 resistance mechanisms. Here, with a series of developed lines with or without PFT but all possessing His and five His-carrying PFT mutant lines created via gene editing, we show that PFT does not confer FHB resistance and that the His resistance effect does not require PFT in the tested conditions. We also show that PFT mutations are not associated with morphological and phenological characteristics that often affect FHB severity.