Progress and future prospects of resistance breeding to Fusarium head blight in Japan

Abstract

We review and report the progress of germplasm enhancement for FHB resistance in Japan. Since 1970s, numerous wheat and barley germplasms have been screened for FHB resistance in intensive national breeding system. Resistance to FHB varies not only among wheat varieties but also their wild relatives, but no accession has been found to be completely immune. Spring wheat varieties from the Japanese and Chinese gene pools were screened and analyzed for their genetic diversity. It showed the uniqueness of the Japanese gene pool, and its distinction from the Chinese one. We traced the pedigrees of resistant wheat varieties to examine genetic diversity and potential in Japanese breeding programs. ‘Shinchunaga’, in addition to ‘Saitama 29’ and local varieties such as ‘Nobeokabouzu-komugi’ and ‘Nyubai’, is considered to the main donors for moderate resistance to FHB in many Japanese commercial varieties. Another contributor ‘Sumai 3’ from China made gains of the resistance level for modern Japanese commercial varieties. These results showed the advancement in development of new varieties with pyramiding of genes to enrich FHB resistance and low level of mycotoxin contamination in the breeding programs