Resistance by Elimination

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in the world and provides 20% of the protein and calories for 4.5 billion people. Yellow rust, Septoria tritici blotch and Fusarium head blight (FHB) are three of the most damaging diseases in many wheat growing areas. Control of these diseases is vital to protect yield and in the case of FHB, avoid the risk of mycotoxins contaminating grain.
Recent findings reveal that the susceptibility of wheat is not always caused by the lack of a 'resistance' factor but because of the presence of a 'susceptibility' factor. The elimination of such factors can greatly increase resistance.
A 'tiling-path' panel of gamma ray-irradiated deletion lines was developed, sequenced to identify the position and size of deletions across the genome.
The panel will be screened for resistance to the three diseases to identify regions associated with susceptibility. Additional deletion lines will be assayed to identify those carrying small deletions across the region of interest. Candidate genes will be validated using TILLING lines carrying mutations in the target genes.