Resistance Assessment Of Transgenic Wheat Incolulated With Fusarium Graninearum

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is an important wheat disease that has caused huge losses to wheat production world widely. Seven million hectares of wheat crops have been influenced every year and 10%～40% of the wheat yields had been lost in the Yangtze River area, winter wheat area of southern China and spring wheat area of northeast China. In the middle and down stream areas of Yangtze River, FHB often reaches to epidemical level more than anywhere causing severe yield losses and mycotoxin contamination, which is poisonous to both human and the livestock. However, as no wheat cultivar has a high level of resistance or absolute innate immunity to FHB, the chemical fungicides are frequently used to control FHB now.In this study, molecular analysis and FHB resistance assays have been used to identify the foreign gene integration and FHB resistance in the transgenic wheat lines of T2, T4 and T5generations. The PCR detection in the transgenic wheat lines of T2,T4 and T5generation has showed that the multiple genes had been integrated into the wheat genome. Point inoculation showed that transgenic wheat lines of T3,T4 and T5 generation were significantly better than the untransformed wheat line to FHB resistance. Meanwhile, transgenic wheat lines of T2 generation harboring multiple genes have a higher resistance to FHB. These may show that the multiple genes are better than single genes and can be additive or cooperative when challenged with FHB pathogens. The current Resultsalso indicated that transgenic wheat lines with strong FHB resistance had been selected. The co-transformation of wheat lines with multiple genes has a better chance to generate FHB resistance. This novel strategy could be used to breed FHB resistant wheat.