Mutation of a histidine-rich calcium-bindingprotein gene in wheat confers resistance to Fusarium head blight

• Published in: Nature genetics Vol. 51; no. 7; pp. 1106 - 2
• Main Authors: Li, Guoqiang, Zhou, Jiyang, Jia, Haiyan, Gao, Zhongxia, Fan, Min, Luo, Yanjun, Zhao, Panting, Xue, Shulin, Li, Na, Yuan, Yang, Ma, Shengwei, Kong, Zhongxin, Jia, Li, An, Xia, Jiang, Ge, Liu, Wenxing, Cao, Wenjin, Zhang, Rongrong, Fan, Jicai, Xu, Xiaowu, Liu, Yanfang, Kong, Qianqian, Zheng, Shouhang, Wang, Yao, Qin, Bin, Cao, Shouyang, Ding, Yunxiao, Shi, Jinxing, Yan, Haisheng, Wang, Xin, Ran, Congfu, Ma, Zhengqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group 01.07.2019
• Subjects: Animal husbandry; Artificial chromosomes; Bioinformatics; Blight; Calcium; Cereal crops; Chromosome deletion; Chromosomes; Crops; Cultivars; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Disease; DNA; Fusarium; Fusarium graminearum; Fusarium head blight; Gene deletion; Gene expression; Gene mapping; Germplasm; Grain crops; Haplotypes; Health risks; Histidine; Homology; Livestock; Livestock breeding; Mutation; Plant growth; Proteins; Quantitative trait loci; Threatened species; Wheat
• ISSN: 1061-4036; 1546-1718
• DOI: 10.1038/s41588-019-0426-7

Head or ear blight, mainly caused by Fusarium species, can devastate almost all staple cereal crops (particularly wheat), resulting in great economic loss and imposing health threats on both human beings and livestock. However, achievement in breeding for highly resistant cultivars is still not satisfactory. Here, we isolated the major-effect wheat quantitative trait locus, Qfhs.njau-3B, which confers head blight resistance, and showed that it is the same as the previously designated Fhb1. Fhb1 results from a rare deletion involving the 3' exon of the histidine-rich calcium-binding-protein gene on chromosome 3BS. Both wheat and Arabidopsis transformed with the Fhb1 sequence showed enhanced resistance to Fusarium graminearum spread. The translation products of this gene's homologs among plants are well conserved and might be essential for plant growth and development. Fhb1 could be useful not only for curbing Fusarium head blight in grain crops but also for improving other plants vulnerable to Fusarium species.