Identification of a major locus Fhb.Er-3StS from Elymus repens conferring Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852725003212?pes=vor&utm_source=clarivate&getft_integrator=clarivate

Journal of Genetics and Genomics，April 2026，758-761，Volume 53, Issue 4

Fei Wang 1, Hanyu Wei 1, Hongjing Xu, Qianyi Guo, Wei Zhu, Lili Xu, Yiran Cheng, Yazhou Zhang, Yi Wang, Jian Zeng, Xing Fan, Yonghong Zhou, Dandan Wu, Yinghui Li, Houyang Kang

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by the Fusarium graminearum (Fg) species complex, is a devastating disease of wheat worldwide. Utilizing genetic resistance to develop FHB-resistant varieties is the most economical and sustainable control approach (Ma et al., 2020). However, breeding is challenging because FHB resistance is a complex trait governed by multiple genes and mechanisms (Gorash et al., 2021). While more than 700 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for FHB resistance have been identified in wheat and its relatives (Li et al., 2025), only 9 major QTLs (Fhb1 to Fhb9) are formally designated, with Fhb3, Fhb6, and Fhb7 originating from wild relatives (Zhang et al., 2025). Since most other QTLs exert minor effects, their breeding use is limited (Ma et al., 2020). Thus, identifying more major QTLs and enhancing their breeding applicability are imperative...........