HOST PLANT RESISTANCE AND VARIETY DEVELOPMENT Chairperson: Peter Ruckenauer Host Plant Resistance and Variety Development QTL ANALYSIS OF FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT IN BARLEY USING THE CHINESE LINE ZHEDAR 2 H.A. Agrama1*, L.S. Dahleen2, R.D. Horsley3, B.J. Steffenson4, P.B. Schwarz5, A. Mesfin3 and J.D. Franckowiak3 1Dept of Plant Pathology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA; 2ARS-USDA, NCSL, Fargo, ND, USA; 3Dept of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA; 4Dept. of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA; and 5Dept. of Cereal Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA *Corresponding Author: PH: (701) 239-1345; E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT Fusarium head blight (FHB) in barley and wheat caused by Fusarium graminearum is a continual problem worldwide. Primarily, FHB reduces yield and quality and produces the toxin deoxynivalenol (DON), which can affect food safety. Locating QTLs for FHB severity, DON level and related traits heading date (HD) and plant height (HT) with consistent effects across a set of environments would increase the efficiency of selection for resistance. A population of seventy-five double haploid lines, developed from the three way cross Zhedar 2/ND9712//Foster, was used for genome mapping and FHB evaluation. Phenotypic data were collected in replicated field trails from five environments in two growing seasons. A linkage map of 214 RFLP, SSR and AFLP markers was constructed. The data were analyzed using MQTL software to detect QTL x environment interaction. Because of the presence of QTL x E, the MQM in MAPQTL was applied to identify QTLs in single environments.