Consistency between degree of susceptibility of barley root and spike tissue toFusarium culmorum

Abstract

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major disease of wheat in the warm and humid wheat growing areas of the world. FHB causes severe yield reduction, decreases grain quality and entails toxicological problems in food and feed. After date there is not much known about the molecular basis of the interaction betweenFusarium spp. and cereals. To improve disease resistance in cereals, we want to establish a comprehensive collection of disease resistance-related barley genes including key elements involved in the defense response the genusFusarium. To identify barley cultivars with differential responses (high and low susceptibility) toFusarium, we comparatively investigated the interaction phenotypes of barley accessions toF. culmorum in roots and spikes. Beside a consistent, high reproducible variation in the reaction pattern of different genotypes, we found an overall consistency between the degree of susceptibility of root and spike tissue in the selected lines, suggesting that root tissue can be used for high throughput disease resistance screening.