Resistance to Fusarium crown rot in wheat and barley: a review

Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is becoming a major disease in many parts of the cereal-growing regions worldwide. Significant QTL conferring FCR resistance have been reported on 13 of the 21 possible hexaploid wheat chromosomes in wheat and on three of the seven chromosomes in barley. Available results show that host resistance to FCR is not pathogen species-specific, that resistance QTL have strong additive effect and that both plant height and growth rate affect FCR severity. Further, different loci seem to be responsible for resistances to FCR and Fusarium head blight although both diseases can be caused by the same Fusarium pathogens. Although marker-assisted selection for FCR resistance has been initiated, the available markers are all derived from QTL mapping, which provides only limited resolution. Further work has to be conducted in developing diagnostic markers before significant progress can be made in deploying marker-assisted selection as a routine tool to accelerate and improve FCR in breeding programmes.