Syed Shayan, Aleliūnas Andrius, Armonienė Rita, Brazauskas Gintaras, Gorash Andrii
Department of Cereal Breeding, Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, Lithuania.
Laboratory of Genetics and Physiology, Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, Lithuania.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Jul 23;16:1604296. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1604296. eCollection 2025.
Genetic improvement of wheat resistance to the devastating disease Fusarium head blight (FHB) is the most effective strategy to prevent economic, health, and food safety issues, and is also an environmentally friendly approach for disease control. However, wheat breeding for FHB resistance is hampered by complex resistance, which is controlled by multiple loci with minor effects and limited availability of resistance sources. Globally, sources of FHB resistance primarily stem from Asian wheat; however, excellent resistance has also been noted in European spring wheat cultivars and breeding lines. The success of breeding for the improvement of wheat resistance to FHB relies on the availability of a genetic pool that is adapted to local environments, possesses desirable agronomic traits, and includes a sufficient number of effective QTL for wheat resistance to FHB. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using a panel of 332 spring wheat genotypes including 181 from Baltic, Nordic countries (65), Central and Western Europe (76) and exotic genotypes (10), employing a 25 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. The objectives of this study were to identify SNPs significantly associated with wheat resistance, determine QTL with approximate regions, and identify candidate genes within these QTL by exploring a panel of wheat genotypes adapted to the Baltic and Nordic countries. A total of 65 significant marker-trait associations (MTAs) with FHB resistance were identified using GWAS. Resistance loci were distributed across 15 wheat chromosomes and three genomes. Furthermore, 55 QTL were identified, 10 of which had phenotypic variation explained ( ) values above 10%. and were stably detected in 11 trials. An overall total of 52 candidate genes was identified by analyzing QTL regions in combination with published transcriptome data. This study demonstrated that a substantial number of QTL can be found in European spring wheat germplasm. Pyramiding of major effects along with small-effect QTL resulted in a positive additive effect on wheat resistance. Elite breeding lines with multiple resistance alleles were identified and could be used as valuable sources in wheat breeding for FHB resistance.
小麦对毁灭性病害赤霉病（FHB）抗性的遗传改良是预防经济、健康和食品安全问题的最有效策略，也是一种环境友好型的病害控制方法。然而，小麦赤霉病抗性育种受到复杂抗性的阻碍，这种抗性由多个微效位点控制，且抗性资源有限。在全球范围内，赤霉病抗性来源主要源于亚洲小麦；不过，欧洲春小麦品种和育种系中也发现了优异的抗性。小麦赤霉病抗性改良育种的成功依赖于一个适应当地环境、具有理想农艺性状且包含足够数量有效抗赤霉病数量性状位点（QTL）的基因库。利用一个由332个春小麦基因型组成的群体进行了全基因组关联研究（GWAS），其中包括来自波罗的海、北欧国家（65个）、中欧和西欧（76个）的181个基因型以及外来基因型（10个），使用了一个25K单核苷酸多态性（SNP）芯片。本研究的目的是通过探索一组适应波罗的海和北欧国家的小麦基因型，鉴定与小麦抗性显著相关的SNP，确定大致区域的QTL，并在这些QTL内鉴定候选基因。利用GWAS共鉴定出65个与赤霉病抗性显著相关的标记-性状关联（MTA）。抗性位点分布在15条小麦染色体和三个基因组上。此外，鉴定出55个QTL，其中10个的表型变异解释（ ）值高于10%。 和 在11次试验中均被稳定检测到。通过结合已发表的转录组数据分析QTL区域，总共鉴定出52个候选基因。本研究表明，在欧洲春小麦种质中可发现大量QTL。主效QTL与微效QTL的聚合对小麦抗性产生了正向加性效应。鉴定出了具有多个抗性等位基因的优良育种系，可作为小麦抗赤霉病育种的宝贵资源。
